School board votes for football merger

Feb 10, 2015 at 11:51 pm by Observer-Review


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School board votes for football merger

WATKINS GLEN--The Watkins Glen Central School District board of education agreed to merge football programs with the Odessa-Montour school district for the 2015 fall season, Monday, Feb. 9.
Superintendent Tom Phillips said if approved by Odessa, the steering committee will start creating the combined team name and uniform right away. The Odessa-Montour school board is scheduled to vote on the merger at their next meeting, Thursday, Feb. 12.
Phillips explained the committee, made up of representatives from both schools, will solicit team name and mascot suggestions from both student bodies. He added this will be used as a template for any other future Watkins and Odessa sports team mergers. Phillips explained individual Watkins teams will still be the Senecas and individual Odessa-Montour teams will still be the Indians. However, he said the merged football team and any future combined teams would use the yet to be determined name and color scheme.
Discussions between the two school boards stemmed from the most recent football season when Odessa was forced to end the season prematurely due to not enough players on the roster. The Watkins football team faced a similar fate in 2010 when athlete injuries meant there weren't enough players to field a team.
The two school boards previously discussed a five-year draft compact which Phillips said was approved. He explained the districts have been talking about the subject since October of last year.
"For the sake of the kids we really want to build a quality program," said Phillips.
In other business:
• The board approved a health and welfare services contract with Corning City School District for 2014-15.
• The annual fire inspection reports were approved.
The next Watkins Glen school board meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 2, at 5:45 p.m.

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