Petition for LHS to Switch Conferences
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 1:27 pm
Some of the LHS Athletic parents have launched a petition requesting that the school switch its conference affiliation from the SWC to the Great Lakes Athletic Conference.
Here is a link to the petition:
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/par ... ign=button
Here is the text that went out with the link.
For what it's worth, I agree wholeheartedly with the petition, and would love to hear your thoughts:
Hello Lakewood Rangers Friends and Family,
I'm emailing you today because I want to share a petition that I've created regarding our current sports conference affiliation at Lakewood High School.
I am specifically referring to one issue regarding our athletic program -I firmly believe we are in the wrong conference. Part of an optimal athletic experience is appropriate competition, playing opponents that offer challenges but also a reasonable chance of winning. In most sports, especially but not exclusively football, we are over matched and suffering loss after loss. This losing has negative effects including dampening school spirit and suppressing participation. This of course begs the question as to why we are losing and while there might well be any number of factors one factor -math -is overwhelmingly responsible for our situation.
With fewer than 1600 students we are a small division one school. Yet even these numbers are deceiving. We have about 240 students in our school that weren't born in the US, something that enriches the overall experience for all of our students but shrinks the pool for which students likely to participate in organized athletics are drawn. For instance in a no-cut sport like football we compete against schools that field 70-90 upperclassman to our 45-50. Moreover many of our athletes already play multiple sports and those who do not typically are involved in music, theater and other co-curricular activities.
The Southwest conference,our current league, has 10 teams located mostly in the outer ring suburbs with growing populations. One school, Berea-Midpark, is significantly larger than Lakewood with about 200 more students per grade than LHS. The others are close to Lakewood in size or smaller. Again, however, the raw numbers are a poor indicator of the number of students likely to participate. Also being in a 10 team league leaves very little room for scheduling flexibility. Football can only schedule one nonconference game a season and basketball only four. Also, tracks in pools are typically eight lanes, making an eight team conference ideal. With our league schedule and the lack of availability of nonleague games, we are locked into a system that sets us up for failure, but there is a readily available solution
The Great Lakes conference has only seven members and, I believe, would welcome Lakewood into their league which currently includes Parma, Normandy, Holy Name, Valley Forge, Rocky River, Bay Village and Elyria Catholic. The best thing for all parties would be for Lakewood and one other school from our league to move to GLC. With an eight team conference, Lakewood would have greater flexibility to schedule easier or tougher opponents as would be best for each team. Finally Rocky River is our best natural rival and it seems proper that we should be in the same league.
Or athletic department has dedicated coaches and staff, and they serve well our wonderful student athletes. Our current conference affiliation, however, is not in the best interest of our student athletes. I encourage the board to discuss this option and look into it.
Please click on the link below to sign the petition if you would like the board to consider:
http://www.ipetitions.com/widget/view/775087. Please share with friends, family, students and anyone interested in the future of Lakewood High School sports.
Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Anna Trautmann
Here is a link to the petition:
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/par ... ign=button
Here is the text that went out with the link.
For what it's worth, I agree wholeheartedly with the petition, and would love to hear your thoughts:
Hello Lakewood Rangers Friends and Family,
I'm emailing you today because I want to share a petition that I've created regarding our current sports conference affiliation at Lakewood High School.
I am specifically referring to one issue regarding our athletic program -I firmly believe we are in the wrong conference. Part of an optimal athletic experience is appropriate competition, playing opponents that offer challenges but also a reasonable chance of winning. In most sports, especially but not exclusively football, we are over matched and suffering loss after loss. This losing has negative effects including dampening school spirit and suppressing participation. This of course begs the question as to why we are losing and while there might well be any number of factors one factor -math -is overwhelmingly responsible for our situation.
With fewer than 1600 students we are a small division one school. Yet even these numbers are deceiving. We have about 240 students in our school that weren't born in the US, something that enriches the overall experience for all of our students but shrinks the pool for which students likely to participate in organized athletics are drawn. For instance in a no-cut sport like football we compete against schools that field 70-90 upperclassman to our 45-50. Moreover many of our athletes already play multiple sports and those who do not typically are involved in music, theater and other co-curricular activities.
The Southwest conference,our current league, has 10 teams located mostly in the outer ring suburbs with growing populations. One school, Berea-Midpark, is significantly larger than Lakewood with about 200 more students per grade than LHS. The others are close to Lakewood in size or smaller. Again, however, the raw numbers are a poor indicator of the number of students likely to participate. Also being in a 10 team league leaves very little room for scheduling flexibility. Football can only schedule one nonconference game a season and basketball only four. Also, tracks in pools are typically eight lanes, making an eight team conference ideal. With our league schedule and the lack of availability of nonleague games, we are locked into a system that sets us up for failure, but there is a readily available solution
The Great Lakes conference has only seven members and, I believe, would welcome Lakewood into their league which currently includes Parma, Normandy, Holy Name, Valley Forge, Rocky River, Bay Village and Elyria Catholic. The best thing for all parties would be for Lakewood and one other school from our league to move to GLC. With an eight team conference, Lakewood would have greater flexibility to schedule easier or tougher opponents as would be best for each team. Finally Rocky River is our best natural rival and it seems proper that we should be in the same league.
Or athletic department has dedicated coaches and staff, and they serve well our wonderful student athletes. Our current conference affiliation, however, is not in the best interest of our student athletes. I encourage the board to discuss this option and look into it.
Please click on the link below to sign the petition if you would like the board to consider:
http://www.ipetitions.com/widget/view/775087. Please share with friends, family, students and anyone interested in the future of Lakewood High School sports.
Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Anna Trautmann