wes_mantooth;551644 wrote:I was always told that it was just a "rumor" about the kid dying. Our athletic director(also my father in law....ex father in law now...lol) said it was just the simple case of not enough numbers to have a team and also the cost to dress a player was too much for our school.
These rumors circulate at schools that don't field a football team. One of the rumors we grew up with at Hiland was the Amish guy who sold the land to the school district restricted in the deed that there would be no football. Either during his lifetime or perpetually. No one really knew. It all comes down to money and numbers. Hiland today has the numbers, but it now has an established soccer program. That is not going away and shouldn't. Currently they don't have the numbers to sustain both. Maybe at some point in the future they will.
The East Holmes School district is in a precarious situation when it comes to levying taxes, especially for sports programs. We have to deal with significant numbers of the Amish community who would religiously vote against any levy based on sports. This is the reason why Hiland's current gymnasium was funded with private funds and eventually turned over to the school district. Those Amish that allow their children to be publicly educated only allow it to the level of the 8th grade. Any tax levy benefiting those at the high school level is an up hill battle.