Windber Ramblers?

[say_oww]

Legally mandated consolidation of public schools is coming in Pennsylvania. You can take that to the bank.

I would like to know the date please, just for historical purposes. After all, someday even the Mayans will be proven correct.

[thebrigade]

Windber was one of the top small school programs in PA for years. Proud tradition. Tough, hard working kids who sold out to the sport. They could compete with any team in the area and any team in their class on a statewide basis. Then they lost half their enrollment and now graduate 50 kids. Pitiful numbers. You all see what has happened. They need to CONSOLIDATE now.

Unbelievably, I heard the other nite that the mental midget powers that be are actually considering building a new gazillion dollar sports complex on the Windber stadium site -- as long as they can get someone else to pay for it. I heard a number north of 10 million. The reason being given for doing so -- even in the face of pitifully low numbers that are continuing to drop -- is that they want to be the "survivor" when consolidation is mandated by law as it will be within the next couple of years. Their thinking is that if they have a new facility, they will be the surviving "merger partner".

they have over 20 kids on the roster, not sure how that dictates a consolidation, just because there is a high number does not mean they are basketball players, just because these kids play good football does not mean they will play good basketball. teams like shade, fh, and others have or had players that only concentrated on basketball, take a valley football team that cant win a single football game and then look at them dominating in basketball. its a game...... not every team is going to dominate, most kids are just playing to have a good time and see what can happen in the playoffs. telling everyone that CONSOLIDATION is going to happen because teams are not winning is bullshat...if consolidation is gonna happen it is because of scholastic reasons only, not because a school can or cannot field a sports team or whether that team is a winning team.

[psycho]

Agree brigade. And it is already happening. Academics have eroded. In order to "compensate" some public schools are reducing academic standards such as for honor roll, etc to make it seem as though everything is alright after teaching staffs are slashed and test scores deteriorate. If you control the standards like PSEA does and kids are having trouble meeting them -- you can just reduce the standards so everyone feels good. It's just like handing out trophies for 7th place.

This is some sick shat and it is hurting our kids' ability to compete in a free market economy. But oh.....they have an answer for that too ---- everyone can work for the government......no competition required.

[Oldskoolhoops]

I think psycho is joe betta. I mean joe betta is psycho. Wait no, argh, umm well I think everyone knows what I mean.

[say_oww]

Academics have eroded. In order to "compensate" some public schools are reducing academic standards such as for honor roll, etc to make it seem as though everything is alright after teaching staffs are slashed and test scores deteriorate.

Interesting claim. Now for the proof, please. Most schools grade now on a higher grading scale than in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Rather than a scale of 90, 80, 70 etc for A, B, C, it is now 94, 85, 78, etc. And by the way, if any of you currently have kids in school you will attest to the fact that they have a lot more intense work than we did back in the day. Anyone else's kids taking college courses through their high school???

they have over 20 kids on the roster, not sure how that dictates a consolidation, just because there is a high number does not mean they are basketball players, just because these kids play good football does not mean they will play good basketball.

Well, said. I think that has been proven many times over.

[psycho]

Sure you can get 20 kids on a team at these piss ant schools but 16 of them are kids who are out for the "participatory" aspect to the "activity". If a coach tries to frame the team in the context of a "sport" then the moronic parents of the "participatory kids" raise hell and destroy what the coach is trying to do. When you no longer have enough competitive kids to create real competition you no longer have a sport. You have an "activity". And that is exactly what has occurred at Windber, Ferndale, and 80% of the pitipac. It has never been worse.

You can "make believe" all you want with your ridiculous promotion of the weakpac, but the plain facts indicate that it should be folded up into about 4 schools. Otherwise, by maintaining this charade, the competitive kids in academics and athletics get dragged down to the level of the "activity", are never challenged and do not develop their potential.

[Manfred]

Lord, how did we survive the 50s and 60s without all this consolidation BS.

[thebrigade]

Sure you can get 20 kids on a team at these piss ant schools but 16 of them are kids who are out for the "participatory" aspect to the "activity". If a coach tries to frame the team in the context of a "sport" then the moronic parents of the "participatory kids" raise hell and destroy what the coach is trying to do. When you no longer have enough competitive kids to create real competition you no longer have a sport. You have an "activity". And that is exactly what has occurred at Windber, Ferndale, and 80% of the pitipac. It has never been worse.

You can "make believe" all you want with your ridiculous promotion of the weakpac, but the plain facts indicate that it should be folded up into about 4 schools. Otherwise, by maintaining this charade, the competitive kids in academics and athletics get dragged down to the level of the "activity", are never challenged and do not develop their potential.

why do you even come on to talk about the westpac if all you want to do is belittle it. i am sure there are enough other things to talk about instead of coming onto every westpac topic to tell us how bad it is and how a team that has a losing season dictates consolidation. a lot of these schools have athletes that just dont want to play. and some wont play for certain coaches, others are just great football players who think what they do on the field will transfer right over to the hard court. these teams who are winning are winning because they have played together since they were 8, and not every school is going to go 18-2, 19-1, or 20-0 year after year. go pick a league your proud of and leave the westpac alone, although kids dont like losing they play because they enjoy the game, maybe if you played you would realize that not everything that happens to our kids is a REASON for CONSOLIDATION. many school in the westpac are getting higher scores and better graduation rates then most states. if you want consolidation fine, just dont make every game, or every schools record in sports a reason for it. i question whether you have even seen a westpac game this year, most teams are playing 7-8 kids period, unless its a blowout.