Academic Excellence is a priority in our Football Program
Our district co-curricular eligibility policy for FALL activities/sports is as follows:
A. The 4th quarter of the previous school year will be used to determine eligibility.
B. The student/athlete MUST have a cummulative G.P.A. of 70 or higher and they CANNOT be failing more than 1 subject IN THE 4th QUARTER.
We emphasize academics in our football program in the following ways:
1. Helmet award stickers - Players bring in their report card on the first day of pre-season practices. For every grade that is a B or higher for the 4th marking period we issue a sticker for their helmet. These are the first stickers to go on our helmets. Why? Because academics comes first!
2. All-Academic Teams - We recognize that going to school all day, going out to practice for 2 1/2 hours and then coming home to do your studies when you're exhausted demands a high level of maturity, mental toughness and discipline. Therefore, at our banquet we name an All-Academic Team for both the JV & Varsity Teams. The top 11 cumulative G.P.A.'s during the 1st marking period on each team will be recognized by receiving a plaque for their accomplishment. We will also honor a senior who has the highest cumulative G.P.A. consisting of grades 9, 10 & 11 by presenting a plaque to him as our Senior Scholar Athlete! This past year Anthony Bianchi won this award!
3. Academic Scholarships - Our booster club will hand out an academic scholarship of up to $500 at our banquet each year. There are certain academic standards and other criteria that need to be met in order to be considered. This past year Mark Kurtz won this scholarship!
4. Academic Progress Reports - We do academic progress reports for all of our players who are borderline academically. We identify our borderline players at the end of the 3rd quarter marking period. We calculate each players cumulative G.P.A. & record how many subjects they are failing in the 3rd marking period. Any player who has a G.P.A. less than 80 OR is failing 1 or more subjects is required to participate. The weekly progress reports will begin on April 29th after the start of the 4th marking period. In addition to checking in weekly with coach Ellis (2:10pm on Thursdays) to review the progress report, these student/athletes will also be required to stay after school with the teachers of the classes that they are struggling the most with. On the progress report there will be a place designated for their teachers to sign, showing how many times they stayed with them each week to get the extra help they need.
At the bottom of this page there is a file that you can open. This file is a list of the names of the athletes who DO NOT need to participate. So, if your name IS NOT on the list, then you are required to participate. This list is also posted in the Football display case across from the boys PE office door.
We feel that through our emphasis on academics, we have been able to provide academic support and incentives for our players to succeed in the classroom. We are also proud to announce that the NYSPHSAA has recognized our Varsity football team as having a Scholar Athlete Team for the sixth year in a row! In addition, in years past we only had the required 12 athletes named to the team. In 2009 we had 21 named to the team! That says a lot about the parents and players in our program! To see the student/athletes named to the 2009 team, go to the Honors & Awards Page and click on 2009 Banquet Awards.
