Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for August 25, 2006 FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS...OUT

From the Southern Illlinoisan...

The lights are out, stands are empty

By Todd Hefferman, The Southern

CAIRO - The weeds are growing high and happy today at Schultz Field.

For the first time since 1920, they won't have to battle the 60 megawatt bulbs high above Cairo High School's football stadium, or the crowds every other Friday night between August and November. In early February, the Pilots announced they wouldn't be fielding a team this fall, spinning the Black Diamond Conference into a tailspin and the future of the program in doubt.

What's not in doubt is how quickly people have moved on in this city of 3,342 at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The roughly $20,000 previously devoted to the football program has gone into a behavioral rewards program, a repainted gymnasium, drug testing for students going out for extracurricular activities and junior high baseball and softball programs.

"I think the numbers speak for themselves," Cairo Athletic Director Rob Shepard said. "The number that stands out in my mind is instead of 13 or 14 kids playing football, we have 30 or 40 playing baseball and softball."

The numbers tell a long story, dating back to the first season for the Pilots in 1920 under Leo C. Schultz. The program is 203-498-19 in 86 years, a winning percentage of just under 30 percent. The team that began with 36 players last year, 11 of whom played the previous year, fell to less than 20 by the end of the year. In the last five seasons, the Pilots struggled to a 5-38 mark, 0-18 the last two. In a 10-team league with nine regular-season games, in a town that's lost more than 1,500 residents since 1990, it all added up to the end of one of the longest-standing programs in the region.

"When you're finishing a season with 14 students, with 14 participants, when you're having trouble fielding enough to start the game, you know the competition is going to be elevated," Cairo Superintendent Gary Whitledge said. "You know the potential for injury is going to be elevated, and you start looking at the relative costs, and wondering is this the best way to spend our dollars?"

The reaction around town was in sad agreement. While the school had a long tradition, many could see the interest in the team fading as the years went on.

"They could just see it was going downhill," said Darrell Shemwell, the owner of Shemwell's Bar-B-Q on Washington Avenue. "To be honest, (people won't) miss it that much, although I hate to see it leave, because Cairo is a basketball town. The last couple of years they've had trouble getting kids into the program and fielding a team."

Not to mention trouble winning. Even in a program that was intended as a way to get kids off the streets as much as win football games, the Pilots' record came into play when the team's existence came into question.

"Not only were we not winning, we weren't competing," Whitledge said. "From that standpoint, it's hard to continually support a team that isn't. But don't get me wrong, we still have those loyal fans that have been coming to games for 20 years, and would continue to do that, but every sport, including basketball, ebbs and flows with the record to some degree."

Administrators moved the money to other projects, with fast results. Just seven days into the new school year, Cairo High School officials said they could already see the impact of the football budget's new targets.

The biggest impact? A positive behavior initiative called Positive Behavioral Intervention System (PBIS) that uses punch cards that can be redeemed for trips, outings and other prizes.

"This is the best start, academically, that we've ever had," said Cairo High School Principal Tony Maltbia, a former college football player at Central Methodist University in Fayette, Mo. "This building is 100 times better than it was last year, and the kids are responding."

The 160 kids at the high school will have no fall sports to compete in until possibly next year, as the Pilots and Co-Pilots don't field golf or volleyball teams but could have fall baseball and softball in 2007. Tangible rewards have taken the place of those opportunities in the name of a new-look gym, brighter hallways and a better reputation at a school with a metal detector near the front door. The hallways, repainted by the faculty, now sing the themes of the PBIS program - "R3=S" that represents Responsibility, Respectfulness, Readiness equals Success. The gym, home to a new floor for a boys basketball program that's won over 250 games since 1990, will soon host new banners on its newly painted walls.

As for the vines growing over the Schultz Field hand-painted scoreboard, they'll continue to infiltrate the field and the weeds. The blue-trimmed press box, boarded up with white panels, will continue to watch. If the program never returns, it might be the only thing that does watch a field once home to a 7-2 squad in 1965.

"I think a lot of them are missing it now, because it's just starting up," said Steve Brinkmeyer, a former sports editor of the Cairo Citizen newspaper. "But two months from now, I don't know."