Tuesday, August 17, 1999
Night football lost at Withrow
Stadium lights won't be fixed until winter
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The years of neglect that have left many Cincinnati Public Schools buildings crumbling will ruin the Friday night football tradition at Withrow High School this fall.
Broken stadium lights will force Withrow's football team to play home games on Saturday afternoons until workers can replace faulty stadium lights and wiring, which probably won't be done until winter. Hughes, which has no stadium and plays home games at Withrow, will play its home games this season at Aiken.
The change threatens to drive down student spirit and home-game attendance in a district that already struggles to fill its spectator stands.
“I don't think anybody will come on Saturdays,” said Mike McDonald, 16, of Evanston, a Withrow junior who plays defensive end. “The audience gives us a boost. It makes you do better.”
“Who we gonna show off to?” agreed Shawn Love, 16, of Kennedy Heights, a Withrow junior who plays cornerback.
The scheduling change also could make finances tight for Withrow's Tigers, said CPS Athletics Manager David Dierker.
Game receipts fund a team's transportation, securi ty, officials, equipment and other operating needs. The seven CPS high schools with football teams made nearly $75,000 in gate receipts last year, including $16,600 at Withrow.
“It's unfortunate,” Mr. Dierker said. “But you have a big school district with a lot of building needs. Where do you spend what little money you have?”
Western Hills High School also will get its stadium lights replaced this fall.
A light pole there toppled into the empty visitors' stand during an April windstorm. The pole was removed and the rest of the lights work. But carpenter ants have weakened them and they must be replaced this season, Mr. Dierker said. The team will continue to play home games on Friday nights with temporary lights.
Lights at other CPS high schools with stadiums — Aiken, Taft, Walnut Hills and Woodward — are usable but need to be replaced soon, Mr. Dier ker said.
Withrow's and West Hi's stadium lights will be replaced with a more energy-efficient system, said Diane Sakmyster, CPS director of school services. The proposals are in the engineering phase and don't have price tags. High-school stadium-light replacements typically cost about $100,000.
Withrow's coach said he's trying to keep his eyes on the prize — new lights.
“I'm hoping we'll actually have bigger crowds on Saturdays, because we won't have to compete with other high school games for spectators,” football coach Greg Searcy said.
Withrow Principal Paul Ramstetter, who used to coach football at Withrow, agreed: “If you had your druthers, you'd rather play Friday night, because it's a tradition thing,” he said. “But these lights needed to be done for a long time.”
A facilities master plan released last September identified nearly $700 million in repairs at the district's 79 schools.
Officials shelved the plan as too expensive, but they hope to implement some of its recommendations as money becomes available.
Money wasn't available to fix the stadium lights until this summer, when city officials signed a contract with the district to provide $100 million over 20 years for building improvements. Until they had the contract, officials couldn't borrow against the promised money to repair facilities, Ms. Sakmyster said.
The district now has about $25 million in building improvements under way, Ms. Sakmyster said.
Besides the stadium light replacements, those fixes include correcting fire- and building-code violations inspectors identified in 1996 and renovating classrooms in elementaries that converted this summer to a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade model.
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