By Jason Emerson
Boys golf at Cazenovia High School will now be a fall sport rather than a spring sport.
The Cazenovia Board of Education approved the scheduling change at its June 26 regular monthly meeting, two months after it was first broached — and after a cold spring season filled with late snow and subsequently wet and difficult course conditions.
In April, Athletic Administrator Mike Byrnes and boys golf team Head Coach Tom Murlin discussed the benefits of the season change with the school board. “The weather is better, the courses are in better shape and our kids have all summer to get ready for the season,” Byrnes said at that time. He also said that the competition could be better since two of Cazenovia’s biggest golf rivals — Skaneateles and Westhill — have decided to move their golf season to fall, and other schools are also considering it.
According to Byrnes, there are also more opportunities for boys sports in the spring, making the retention rate for the golf team a struggle. “[The switch] balances the boys sports by season a little bit better,” he said, adding that it will help with their transportation service and allow golfers to play spring sports between seasons.
“Some of my best golfers have actually been former lacrosse players,” Murlin said in April. “There’s something about baseball, lacrosse, tennis, sports with sticks, rackets, bats … it lends itself to golf. To have them all [play on the same season] is very difficult.”
The school board unanimously approved the season change, 5-0, with members Lisa Lounsbury and Leigh Baldwin absent.
The board also approved the district sports combinations for the 2018-19 school year. Cazenovia has, for the past several years, allowed other schools’ sports teams to combine with its teams and allowed Cazenovia students to join another school’s team, based on the availability of those sports within the relevant school districts.
Next year’s combined sports teams will include:
—Varsity and JV football, with Cazenovia as the host school for DeRuyter athletes.
—Girls varsity swimming and diving, with FM as the host school for Cazenovia athletes.
—Boys varsity swimming and diving, with FM as the host school for Cazenovia athletes.
—Boys ice hockey, with Cazenovia as the host school for Hamilton, Morrisville-Eaton, Chittenango, Mt. Markham, Sherburne-Earlville and Norwich athletes.
—Varsity and JV wrestling, with Cazenovia as the host school for Fabius-Pompey athletes, and modified wrestling for Otselic Valley athletes.
—Girls varsity lacrosse, with Cazenovia as host school for Hamilton and Manlius Pebble Hill athletes.
The fees charged per student to athletes from other schools to join a Cazenovia team will remain the same as they were last year.
Also at the meeting, the board:
•Scheduled its annual reorganizational meeting for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 5, in the board meeting room in the district office.
•Approved the middle school and high school handbooks for the 2018-19 school year.
•Approved the out-of-district tuition rates for the 2018-19 school year. The rates will see an increase of 4.3 percent from last year (the same rate as the district budget), which equates to $3,592 for students in grades K-6, and $4,715 for students in grades 7-12.
•Approved a bond resolution authorizing the district to purchase five new school busses for the 2018-19 school year. The approval simply gives the district permission to move forward with the purchase, which was approved by district voters in the May budget vote.
