THE HUDSON VALLEY'S NEWEST OLD NEWSPAPER
ELLENVILLE, NEW YORK
12428
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2007
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Bold Moves Needed To Keep Blue Devils Successful

The Ellenville Blue Devils recently completed their most successful fall sports season in recent memory. The school and the community certainly caught "Blue Devils Pride." Administrators inside the school are speaking of a new found spirit on the part of students, faculty and staff.

For the Ellenville Blue Devils athletic programs, "optimism" is the word of the day.

However, if Ellenville is to continue making progress toward returning to the glory days of old, some bold moves must be made. This would be a departure from the conservative, slow approach to action that has been the history of the school's policy makers, the Superintendent and Board of Education.

Another key figure is the school district's attorney, referred to as "Lawyer NO" by those who are familiar with him. The school attorney's role is to advise the Board of Education, the policy makers of the school district. But the Board of Education has usually rubber stamped his recommendations, and in effect made him a de facto Superintendent. The attorney often recommends against an action and the Board's tacit approval makes it law, even if the action presented would have benefited our kids.

The Superintendent has never been a coach and often does not understand the "see a problem � fix the problem" theory. This often results in the socialist policies that everyone should get something so that no one is left out. The reason given for this thinking is the fear of lawsuits.

We live in a litigious society. Somebody is always suing somebody. The Superintendent and Board of Education need to do the right thing, because it's actually easier to defend the right thing in court. Unless the power players change their outlook, it may be difficult to see continued success for our athletes. However, since the current glass is "half full" let's take a look at some moves that would help our athletes:

Hire more coaches. Every varsity team should have an assistant coach. Varsity football should have two assistant coaches. Additional coaches would get the athletes the extra coaching points they need. Years ago, when the Board of Education was making cuts (such as to a half-time Athletic Director) they justified the action by claiming that other schools were doing it.

Currently, almost every other school has an assistant varsity basketball coach, wrestling coach, baseball coach, etc. So let's "be like everyone else" and give our kids an additional coach.

Make improvements to our facilities. Field maintenance is more than simply mowing and lining the fields. Our outdoor facilities need regular watering, seeding and fertilizing. Most of this can all be done in the off-season. Right now, there is no off-season field maintenance. The poor condition of our athletic fields shows a lack of pride and increases the chances of injury to our athletes. Our athletes deserve the very best. Our athletic fields should be the very best.

Some progress has been made with the football field in recent years. We now need to improve our baseball, softball, field hockey and soccer fields. While we're at it, let's build a new, state of the art concession stand and press box for our football field. The bigger crowds at this year's events certainly warrant it. This is not a, "Let's put it in our five year plan and look at it then," project. This is a let's get it done now project.

Improve the weight room. Weight training is a necessity for every athlete and every sport. Our weight room is abysmal. Our athletes continually face off against opponents who are stronger.

The weight room must be improved if we are to remain competitive. It is confusing then why the Board of Education declined to accept free weight equipment from another school that was upgrading several years ago. Equipment that was superior to anything we had in Ellenville. The board refused to accept it claiming, you guessed it � we might get sued if a kid gets hurt while using this equipment. Even more puzzling is the fact that the Superintendent and Board of Education refused a $5,000 donation from the Ellenville Booster Club, monies designated for the sole purpose of improving our weight room.

Encourage more students to get involved. From the earliest grades, we need to instill in our kids the importance of participation. Whenever someone asks why our teams have fared so poorly in the last decade, one of the socialists always responds that we have a low socio-economic population and many of our kids have poor home situations.

I'm not sure what all that means but I've learned that you should never sell a kid short. Kids are very resilient. Athletic competition and kids who are lacking in other parts of their lives is often a great combination. Athletics is the other half of education. If a child learns that participation is expected and encouraged, that child will fall in line. It does not matter what that child is facing outside of school. Everyone knows of a kid who improved their grades or stayed in school because of sports.

Improve Discipline. It has become common place to see athletes getting in trouble. This is not a new phenomenon. What is new is the lack of consequences the athletes face when they do get in trouble. In the past, the use of alcohol or drugs, or an athlete getting arrested, often resulted in an athlete's suspension or even removal from the team. No longer. In fact, the better the athlete is, the more lenient the discipline.

Being a Blue Devil should be a privilege, not a right. It shouldn't matter if an athlete can score a touchdown, knock down a 3-point shot, or hit a home run. If you break the rules you should face the consequences. An Ellenville school administrator once justified an athlete being back on the field several days after a felony arrest by saying, "We determined that his actions took place outside of school." Great. So if an athlete is arrested for committing a robbery, or assaulting a police officer, they can still play � as long as the crime wasn't committed on school grounds?

This is a major problem. When you educate a kid, when you coach an athlete, you must develop the whole person. You must instill in that kid the positives that will help him/her become a well-rounded individual who will mature into a productive citizen in our society. If you fix his jump shot but look the other way when he commits an offense, you are negligent. Several years ago, one of the greatest Blue Devils basketball players ever walked around the school with this same type of immunity. A year after graduation he was facing rape charges. Of course, the adults at school had no culpability because the crime was committed off school grounds.

Stop the cronyism. Several years back, a kid was cut from a junior high team. The kid happened to be the child of a Board of Education member. The Board member went to the other Board members and complained about how the process was unfair, how the coach had the wrong philosophy, and how we should look at our policy regarding sports.

The matter of whether or not this Board members kid was good enough to make the team never came up. What did result was our reactionary Board of Education passing a policy that modified sports would have a "no-cut" policy. That spring, our modified baseball team, with only one coach and almost 40 kids on the roster, lost to Port Jervis by 38 runs.

A couple of years ago, the Board voted to bring back the Ellenville gymnastics team. The gymnastics team had solid success under former coach and teacher, Jack Carter but had been dormant since Coach Carter had retired.

Why did the Board reinstate gymnastics? Was there a flood of enthusiastic wannabe gymnasts petitioning the Board to bring the sport back? Had we hired an experienced, successful gymnastics coach to help revive our program? No. A school Board member had a daughter who was interested in the sport so they spent thousands of dollars on new equipment and paid a coach to bring back the gymnastics team. The team lasted less than two seasons. The equipment sits in a storage shed.

Place a greater emphasis on extra-curricular activities. There was a time, not too long ago, when Ellenville high school plays, musicals, and concerts would fill the auditorium. If you wanted to watch a home varsity basketball game, you had to show up by halftime of the junior varsity game to guarantee yourself a seat. Student-run events like car washes were crowded affairs. The Superintendent, Board of Education, and Administration need to put their money where there mouths are and proactively emphasize, support, and fund improved extra-curricular and athletic endeavors so that our kids can continue to experience success. It's the right thing to do.


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