By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
In front of an auditorium packed with student athletes and their parents, school officials broke the news.
Bowling Green athletes will no longer be able to play sports if they can’t score at least a C average in their classes.
Bowling Green Superintendent Francis Scruci and new Athletic Director Jonas Smith agreed that the former standard of a 1.7 grade point average is no longer good enough to be able to play sports. Student athletes will now have to achieve at least a 2.0 GPA.
“Athletics is a privilege, not a right,” Scruci told the athletes and their parents last week.
While sports may be more enjoyable than scholastics for some students, the chances of athletics helping them get to college is very, very slim. Of the 750,000 high school athletes in the nation, their performance on the field gets less than 1 percent of them get college scholarships, Scruci said.
So from now on, academics come first.
“We’ve got to emphasize they are students first,” Smith said.
According to Scruci, the new raised GPA requirement should not be difficult for most Bowling Green athletes to achieve. Last year just three student athletes were below the 2.0 GPA.
“Schools exist because of academics, not athletics,” Scruci said.
Though it wasn’t mentioned at last week’s athletes meeting, Bowling Green City Schools is also considering enacting some type of drug testing program. Most school districts in Wood County already do drug testing of student athletes.
“We’ll be looking at it,” Scruci said, adding that any drug testing must first be approved by the board of education.
Scruci and Smith also announced plans to do private fundraising to build better athletic facilities. Top on the list is an all-weather synthetic turf for the football field, a field house for all sports, and improvements to the weight room. Both men agreed that the district’s sports facilities were substandard.
“Our athletes deserve better,” Smith said.
Private fundraising will be done, with naming rights offered to donors.
“We don’t think taxpayers should pay the bill,” Scruci said.
Smith has some experience in this area. As athletic director for Dayton Public Schools, he oversaw a $3.6 million renovation of the district’s Welcome Stadium, and secured corporate sponsorships for some of the project.
