Schools set football vote for February

WATKINS GLEN--The Watkins Glen and Odessa-Montour school boards met and discussed a draft compact to merge their football programs Monday night, Jan. 26 at the Watkins Glen auditorium. The joint workshop was the first between the two boards regarding a potential football merger, but no action was taken by the boards during the meeting.
Public comment was not permitted at the workshop to the nearly 40 in attendance, but each board set up a time for public comment. Watkins Glen's public meeting was scheduled for Feb. 9 and Odessa-Montour's is Feb. 12.
Watkins Glen Superintendent Tom Phillips said he met with Odessa-Montour interim Superintendent Peter Punzo to design a template for the possible new team. Phillips said the districts were working on a tight schedule to try to get the team prepared for next season, saying he would like to have something in place this spring. He said the district's attorneys will meet following this meeting to draft a resolution to be sent to each board for approval at their next board meetings in February.
"At what point to we look at each other and say 'how do we build something that is sustainable over time that is good for all children?'" Phillips said.
The superintendents proposed a five-year agreement, with an escape clause after three years. Phillips said the costs would see a split of 60 percent for Watkins Glen and 40 percent for Odessa-Montour, along with the dissolution of assets in the event the team is split again in the future. The superintendents proposed the team's new mascot, team name and colors to be recommended by the student athletes participating in the sport, but Watkins Board President Mike Myers said he would like to see all students have a say, as this name may be used for other merged teams in the future.
Phillips mentioned the possibility of a steering committee to make recommendations to each board in regards to the football team which will consist of each district's superintendent, one administrator and one coach to be appointed by that district's superintendent. He said the selection of coaches would be reached via consensus within the steering committee. Phillips said the final recommendation would be sent to the Watkins board for approval, as Watkins would be the operations district officially employing the coaches. He said once the resolutions are adopted, he would hope to have the coaches -- three from each school -- hired by March.
Punzo said since each district's code of conduct differed significantly, they decided the code of conduct of the student in question will apply to that student. Some board members expressed concerns with this policy, but eventually agreed upon a uniform set of on-field standards to be developed by the coaches to compliment this policy.
Punzo said they are looking to fill three teams with this new merged program, which may include a modified team, a junior varsity team and a varsity team. Phillips added they would attempt to use each school's field's evenly, possibly even alternating for home games, or alternating yearly for homecoming games. He said that final decision would be based on the steering committee's recommendation. Punzo said they are looking for that homecoming event to be an event for both schools no matter who is hosting.
"We are looking to unify here," Punzo said.
"We want this to be one program, we don't want this to be Odessa kids playing on a Watkins team," Phillips added. "[...] We want this to be a joint effort."