Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for February 19, 2006 TURMOIL IN THE BLACK DIAMOND

After a fairly quiet week, controversy returns to Cairo. This time it's the school district's turn.

From the Southern Illinoisan...

Cairo drops its football program for next season

By: Todd Hefferman
The Southern

"As far as I know, I'm still the football coach," Cairo leader Robert Newell said Saturday.

Newell, however, will not have a team to lead next fall. Cairo administrators sent a fax Friday afternoon to the nine other schools in the Black Diamond Conference informing them the Pilots would not field a football team in 2006, leaving them scrambling to try to find another game. Newell was informed by a friend Friday, not by a member of the school board or administration, that Cairo's football team was cut for the fall term.

The move left the future of the Black Diamond in doubt and the plight of the 2006 season up in the air. Christopher Athletic Director John Kretz, who also coaches the Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton football team, said the league's remaining programs would likely end up with a forfeit victory this season if they're unable to schedule another game. The 10-team BDC is in the second season of a rotating football schedule that revolves around Week 5, the league's rivalry week.

If Cairo does not bring back its football team, the BDC could be in the market for another school to join in order to stay with its current 10-team format. First, the league must determine what will happen with the fall season, when Cairo was scheduled to play nine games, all against Black Diamond teams.

"I don't know how the Illinois High School Association would rule on what the obligation with Cairo is," Kretz said.

Kretz and Carterville Athletic Director Todd Rogers said they would wait to see what comes out of the league's principals' meeting set for Thursday before trying to schedule another game.

"To be fair, I could try to schedule a game for Week 9 right now, but I feel like we have to meet as a conference and see where we go from here," Rogers said. "Next year is the biggest question, so, hopefully, we can figure something out so that we can schedule."

Rogers, who also coaches Carterville's girls basketball team, said the league's athletic directors will meet about a week after the principals to discuss the future of the conference, among other things. Both meetings are annual and were scheduled prior to Cairo's announcement.

With Cairo out, BDC teams would be left with a forfeit win and a bye week if they're unable to find another opponent and the IHSA allows them to look. Kretz said finding another opponent would be all but impossible at this stage of the school year, when most other teams have already filled their nine-game schedules.

"It's going to be tough now," Kretz said. "I know three months ago I talked to a school in the Metro area that had an opening, or a potential opening, and they were interested in playing us, but they couldn't wait forever."

Newell began last season with 36 players, 11 who played the previous season, but ended the season with about 16, he said. Saturday the second-year coach said the administration's lack of commitment to the program hurt his team's numbers. The team's numbers was the reason he was given why the team was dissolved.

"There was something they weren't telling me, that Meridian didn't want to co-op, or our administration didn't want to go through the worry about it," Newell said. "They were worried about the kids getting hurt, and I get my kids in shape. A coach's job is to get the kids in shape to play, and we played 20 kids."

Newell said he had 47 kids in Meridian that had signed up to play last season in addition to the 36 that began with Cairo.

From the WPSD TV web site...

Illinois: Cairo High School Cuts Football Program

Brooks Ware,
WPSD NewsChannel 6

It's the end of an era for one southern Illinois town. After 86 years, the Cairo School Board has voted to sack its high school football program.

Cairo junior Charles Johnson has played wide receiver since his freshman year. Now, he'll graduate with one less letter on his resume.

Johnson, "It ain't a good thing to me because I've been playing for three years, and this is my senior year and they talking about cutting it off. I wouldn't like that at all."

Last season the football team started the season with 40 players and ended with just 14. Superintendent Gary Whitledge says that's just not enough players to be competitive, and the money can be better spent on other sports.

Whitledge, "This decision is, no, we're not going to spend any fewer dollars, we're just going to rededicate them. We're going to look at adding fall baseball and adding another girl sport."

Cairo High School only has 200 students. And, with so few playing football, Whitledge says he was concerned about injuries for kids forced to play both offense and defense the entire game.

Even Charles Johnson admits interest in football was falling off. "Kids stopped coming to practice, but you got to play with what you got."

Johnson is lucky, he has basketball and track to fall back on. And, it's a good thing because Whitledge says there won't be any more Friday night football in Cairo until numbers are up at the high school.

Cairo's departure leaves a hole in the schedule for its opponents in the Black Diamond Conference. The conference plans to ask the Illinois High School Athletic Association about giving each of Cairo's conference opponents a forfeit victory this fall.