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Questions raised about Ogdensburg school sports team merger policy

Posted 6/24/17

By THOMAS LUCKIE III OGDENSBURG – While the Ogdensburg City School District Board of Education approved various sports merger requests from Heuvelton Central School District for the upcoming fall …

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Questions raised about Ogdensburg school sports team merger policy

Posted

By THOMAS LUCKIE III

OGDENSBURG – While the Ogdensburg City School District Board of Education approved various sports merger requests from Heuvelton Central School District for the upcoming fall and winter sports seasons at Monday’s meeting, questions concerning the district’s current merger policy were raised by several board members.

The discussion took place before the board voted on a merger request from Heuvelton Central for varsity football, as board member Laurie Zweifel questioned the inclusion of a merger request from Heuvelton Central while not also including Morristown Central School District’s request.

“It had to have support from the head coach and myself and it didn’t have the support for varsity for Morristown,” Athletic Director Anthony Bjork said.

“Bringing Heuvelton and Morristown in would change our classification to a B,” Bjork added.

Last season Ogdensburg Free Academy’s football team participated in Class C and were the first team in the history of Section X to appear in a state championship football game.

Bjork pointed out that while the district had accepted merger requests from Morristown for varsity football in the past, it has been quite some time since Morristown last made a request for a merger at the varsity level.

While football merger requests from Morristown were approved at the modified and junior varsity levels at a prior board meeting, Bjork stated that he simply told Morristown Central Superintendent Douglas McQueer that a merger in varsity football would change OFA’s classification.

“If we accept one school, but not another, wouldn’t that be considered recruiting?” Zweifel asked.

“It wouldn’t be recruiting,” Bjork said.

Board Vice President Michael Myers then brought up language in the district’s sports merger policy that calls for a more inclusive approach to merger requests, which was added during revisions to the policy over the course of several meetings last fall

“I thought the new policy said basically that if we are going to request a merger, then we are going to take a major from every school that applies and if we can’t take every school, then it’s a no for everybody,” Myers said.

While key language in the relatively new policy states that “If a merger, in a particular sport, is requested by more than school it shall be the practice of the district that all schools’ requests will be honored,” the first criteria of the policy does state that the head coach of the respective sport, Athletic Director and Superintendent of Schools must support the request.

OFA varsity football coach Matthew Tessmer also addressed the concerns of the board.

“Football re-classes every two years,” Tessmer said.

“Two years ago we could have taken three schools, last year we could have taken two schools with the classifications and this year we can take one,” Tessmer said.

“We look at it from the point-of-view of what’s in the best interest of Ogdensburg,” Tessmer added.

Tessmer also noted that four student athletes from Heuvelton Central will likely be returning to the varsity team for the upcoming season.

Superintendent Timothy Vernsey recalled memories of a state playoff game OFA played against the much larger Troy High School back in the 1990s.

“The rescue squad had to be used several times that day, it was ridiculous quite frankly,” Vernsey said.

“Especially in contact sports like football, it’s critical to stay within a zone of what you’re capable of playing physically,” Vernsey added.

“It’s all about the classification, where we fall, and what’s best for our students in Ogdensburg,” Bjork said.

Board member Michael Tooley took a pragmatic approach to interpreting the situation.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily the case of being more competitive as it is an opportunity to be competitive and with a move to Class B in football, as Mr. Vernsey referenced, we can’t compete and actually the physical health of student athletes is at risk,” Tooley said

Tooley then reminded the board and administration that he originally proposed language relating to “grandfathering in” athletes who had been participating in OFA sports through mergers be included in the revised policy.

“We couldn’t do that, but in this case the decision to choose Heuvelton over Morristown is an attempt to grandfather those kids who have been playing in our program, so I can support this,” Tooley said.

The varsity football merger request from Heuvelton was ultimately approved by the board with a 6-3 vote.

A merger request from Heuvelton for varsity volleyball was tabled due to the lack of a number of anticipated participating students included on the official request. The board plans to revisit the merger request at a later date.