Conneaut sends out an SOS

BOB ETTINGER
Star Beacon

Tue, May 13 2008

— CONNEAUT — Two weeks ago, Mike Sanford sat down some of the kids in the Conneaut Cougars wrestling program and began talking to them about the situation surrounding the possible loss of some of the sports in the Conneaut City Schools.
“(The situation) has been a downer,” Sanford said. “I sat some of the kids down on the mat and we talked about it. A 9-year-old asked me, ‘Coach, why are we here if there isn’t going to be wrestling in high school?’ When a kid asks you that, that’s when it hits home.”
When the school system’s levy failed earlier this month, it was declared that boys and girls soccer, tennis, golf and wrestling would be cut for the 2008-09 school year because they were the sports that were the least profitable. And even the youngest of students in the Conneaut system know how it’s going to affect them.
“People don’t think kids follow or pay attention,” Sanford said. “But they do. They caught me a little bit off guard with that question. What do you do in that situation? You tell the truth.”
That’s when Sanford knew he had to get involved.
“I started thinking something had to be done,” Sanford said. “When I was in high school, people stepped up for me. Now, it’s my chance.”
Sanford knows a little something about the possibility of losing the sports an athlete is so committed to. In the early 1990s, Sanford was a student-athlete in the Conneaut schools. A lack of money in the system made it a real possibility there would be no more Spartans’ sports.
That’s when the Save Our Sports campaign was started. The community rallied and Conneaut sports were saved. It’s something Sanford, nor many others in Conneaut have forgotten.
“I don’t take things for granted when it comes to sports or extra-curricular activities,” Sanford said.
That movement’s lasting impression led Sanford to gather a group of people to gather together to try and raise a minimum of $40,000 — the amount needed to keep those sports running on the varsity level — or the total goal of $55,000 to keep all of those sports at the varsity and junior high levels.
So on Tuesday night, 20 people gathered at the Conneaut American Legion Hall to hash out a plan to save the sports in question for next school year. Since the movement was so successful in the ’90s, and remembered to this day by a majority of Conneaut’s citizens, Save Our Sports — SOS — was reborn.
“I had seen the impact my father had on a lot of kids lives through sports,” Sanford said. “It’s a lesson I learned through him, not to turn your back on kids.”
When the levy initially failed, it was the wide belief in the district that those kids that lost their sport would just transfer to another school through open enrollment and continue plying their craft. But the Ohio High School Athletic Association makes it clear in its rules and regulations that that is not a possibility, unless the school cuts all sports for the given season or the student physically moves into a new district.
If the student just moves to a new school through open enrollment, that student must sit out a year before playing that sport.
The possibility of Spartans wrestling for rival Edgewood or Conneaut tennis players going to Geneva to play, was dead.
“I had accepted the fact, when the levy failed, the kids would go to other schools under open enrollment,” Sanford said. “I didn’t like it, but I had accepted it. But with the OHSAA’s rule changes, the kids would get cheated out of a year. Something had to be done.”
Which suits Sanford just fine.
“The kids look better in blue and gold than red and gray,” Sanford said. “That’s not because of Edgewood, but because they’re from Conneaut.”
SOS was reborn in a big way. Two Conneaut-based businesses — D and D Paving under Lance Drew and Evergreen Lake Park under David and Jennifer LaVesque — donated $500 each to get the ball rolling.
Now the buck is being passed to other Conneaut-based businesses and citizens to save the sports. A pledge drive is being started this morning asking local businesses and individuals to help.
To raise the minimum of $40,000 all it takes is for 2,000 people to donate $20 each or 4,000 people to give $10.
“Conneaut is a small community,” Sanford said. “Everyone used to work together. Over the last several years, we’ve separated and divided. Hopefully, this is something that will draw everybody back together as a community. For this to work, we have to all pull together.”
The 20 people in attendance were all tossing around ideas on how to raise the money and save the sports. It was a welcome environment for Sanford.
“In order to be successful, you have got to have good people,” Sanford said. “Tonight was very successful. I’ve been joking that we need to raise $40,000 in 40 days. We’ll see if we can get it done.”
The adults aren’t the only ones that need to help the cause. The student-athletes this movement will affect will also have to play a role.
“They’re the ones that benefit from it, they should work for it,” Sanford said. “They can help by putting out cans and fliers and believe it or not, they can help by being part of the decision-making process. I’ve been working with kids the last two years all year around. Some of their ideas are better than the adults.”

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