The word earlier this week out of Florida was that varsity sports schedules are being cut – can Illinois be far behind?

Monday, the Florida High School Athletic Association board of directors reduced varsity games by 20 percent and sub-varsity (JV and freshman) games by 40 percent for the next two school years.
The policy will affect every sport except top moneymaker football, which will allow a maximum of 10 varsity games per school, and competitive cheerleading. Junior varsity football was cut from eight games to six.

Prep football in Illinois, while indeed a big deal, isn’t as big as in Florida or Texas. In fact, I’m not sure the sport would qualify as the same moneymaker as Florida football.

Times like these make you put it all into perspective. Sports are a very important part of high school life. Quality teachers, books and finding the best ways to help the majority of students learn are even more important.

Let’s hope we don’t have to choose from any of them. However, I can see conference realignments as well as sub-varsity teams and schedules being reduced. For instance, in the not-too-distant future, you may see the elimination of the familiar junior varsity-varsity basketball nights at your favorite high school. Instead, those nights might feature a varsity girls basketball game and a varsity boys game. The junior varsity could be eliminated in favor of a freshman-sophomore squad.

Here’s hoping the choices that have to be made don’t hurt the students much. After all, they’re why we do it, right?

This is a touchy subject, what with the Alton School District in some financial straits these days, but wouldn’t it be great to see an artificial playing surface at Public School Stadium?
Before you laugh yourself into a conniption fit, consider:
An artificial surface field at PSS would save money in the long run and make it easier to play contests in nasty weather.
Synthetic playing surfaces used to be reserved for professional or major college venues, but that is far from the case now. In the Metro East alone, plastic grass is popping up nearly as fast as dandelions.
O’Fallon High School and McKendree University have artificial surfaces at their football fields. Within the past year, Edwardsville High and SIU Edwardsville have added synthetic surfaces.
It took about eight weeks to install the turf at EHS. It took place in May and June of last year.
Artificial turf is far from cheap – the surface at the Edwardsville District 7 Sports Complex cost in the neighborhood of $700,000. But it will pay for itself in the long run. Fewer maintenance costs, the ability to schedule multiple events close to each other and playing games immemdiately following a downpour make prospect attractive.
Public School Stadium in Alton is one of the sharpest looking high school stadiums around. It was constructed in the 1950s and its bowl shape, top-level entrance and atmosphere make it a great place to enjoy a prep football game or track meet.
The synthetic track that was installed at PSS several years ago was a great step forward – a logical second step would be an artificial playing surface.
The life span of synthetic fields is somewhere between 10 and 15 years. When they do need to be re-installed, the cost would about half of the initial cost because the foundation, base, and drainage system would be re-used.
In addition to increasing playable hours, synthetic fields have several other benefits over natural turf fields. They provide a superior, flat, level playing surface. They are safer on which to play – no holes to turn ankles or clumps of grass of dirt to trip a player.
With a synthetic field, a plethora of football and soccer games could be scheduled there, as well as practices for the AHS Marching 100 without fear of damage to grass. The scheduling nightmares that come with weather-related cancellations would be lessened and I’m sure Alton High athletics director Scott Harper and Marquette A.D. Jerry Montague would be grateful. And with soccer being played at PSS instead of Gordon Moore Park, the schools would have more of a say-so about weather conflicts.
On a recent cold, blustery, rainy day, baseball, softball and soccer games were cancelled all around the St. Louis area – except at Edwardsville High. With their “Tiger Turf,” the folks at EHS were able to get in in a girls soccer game against O’Fallon. It was one fewer game for which to try and find a makeup date.
The State of Illinois needs to make good on its payments to Alton before any of this is considered. And, of course, the most important issues are educating students and well being able to recruit (and keep) the best teachers possible.
In a perfect world, the state catches up on what it owes, the district decides to install synthetic turf and all is well.
Sometimes you have to step over a dime to pick up a dollar.