This fall, not only were Batavia High School sports teams finding success in competition, the athletes were succeeding as well in the classroom, Athletic Director Michael Bromley told the school district board at their regular monthly meeting Tuesday.
Across 10 fall sports, the school had 75 students qualify as scholar-athletes, Bromley said, meaning they scored at least above 90 percent in academic standing. Many of the athletes, he said scored ranked over 95 percent.
"Only five kids this fall were on academic probation," Bromley said.
Bromley's presentation was an annual review of the athletic department.
Each fall, there are seven girls sports programs in grades seven through 12 with 17 total teams (including JV and modified), and there are three programs for the boys in the fall with eight total teams.
In the winter, there are four girls programs, 10 teams, and six boys programs, 15 teams; and in the spring, two girls programs and seven teams and five boys programs and 13 teams.
In all, there are 78 coaches in the district.
"It's always a challenge to find coaches who are available to do the work at the time of day that we do what we do," Bromley said.
For grades seven-12, 53 percent of the students participate in at least one sport during the school year. That's higher than the 39 percent rate in 1999 but lower than the highest level of the past 10 years, which was 57 percent.
For all this activity, athletics isn't even 2 percent of the district's total budget.
In some sports, such as hockey, the school combines with other schools to create a team. In the case of gymnastics, BHS wouldn't even be able to offer the sport if not for merged programs since there are only five girls participating.
The merged wrestling program -- with Attica -- has won consecutive Section V championships, which has helped the program retain athletes while attracting new participants. There are now 15 wrestlers at the school and the merged program is moving up to Division 1 where they expect to continue to be competitive.
One thing Bromley looked at doing was using the gym walls to bring more recognition to players who achieved All-State or All-Greater Rochester honors. But realized that could get expensive so he found a program that allowed him to put a touch-screen TV outside the gym. It contains a wealth of information about BHS athletics, including the latest schedules, pictures, and recognition for all of the school's standout athletes and Hall of Fame members.
It has the added bonus of being available online.
Bromley said that as far as he knows, this is the first such touch-screen TV for school athletics in the state.
