Boys and Girls Basketball Coaches
The Ellwood City school board will interview two candidates each for the positions of boys and girls basketball head coaches. The positions were open since Jolene Krupa and James Kosior resigned in following the 2015-16 season.
The positions may be filled at today’s meeting.
Video Highlight Board for Helling Stadium
At the board’s agenda meeting on Monday, Athletic Director Darin Morella presented a proposal to install a video highlight board at Helling Stadium.
Although Morella estimated the board would cost between $7,000 and $35,000, he emphasized he was looking for ways of negating the price, primarily by offering ad space on the video board to local businesses.
“If it’s going to cost anything, we’re not going to do it,” Morella said.
Morella said the video highlight board could be used for all sporting events and some community events, such as the Ellwood City Arts and Crafts Festival.
“I don’t know of any district in the area that has a video board. We’d be unique,” Morella said.
Soccer and Bowling Teams
Ellwood may once again have boys and girls soccer and bowling teams. Morella announced a plan to organize the two sports on a semi-cub basis, at no initial cost to the district.
The coaches would all be volunteers, the costs would be absorbed by parents and the teams wouldn’t have full WPIAL status. The soccer teams would play all their games away and the bowling teams would play at Sims Lanes in Big Beaver.
Ellwood hasn’t had a varsity girls soccer team since 2012 and a boys team since 2011. Both teams were discontinued due to lack of interest. The district has had club bowling in the past.
According to Morella, 17 girls and five boys have shown interest in joining soccer teams, while bowling had “much interest” for both boys and girls.
I like Mr. Morella’s initial proposal, but much follow up work needs to be done. The cost range of $7k – $35k is unhelpful. That certainly will need to be zeroed in a bit. Advertising would be a good way to offset costs as well as generate revenue. However, I think it would be best to try to pre-sell any advertisement slots in order to get firm commitments.
That may be the hard part. With a less than thriving business district, local business may not have additional capital to invest.