Fall athletics punctuated by top grades

PINE PLAINS — The Pine Plains Board of Education asked for a presentation on the district’s fall sports season at its Dec. 15 meeting. Athletic Director Mike Kohut and physical education teacher and coach Jeremy Weber highlighted Bomber sports accomplishments this past season, most notably the high number of honor roll athletes.

The success of a high school sports team shouldn’t be gauged on the win or loss percentage, Kohut said, explaining that Stissing Mountain Middle/High School had a “very successful†season because they met the “high level of expectation†set by the district.

Geographically, a big change this year was that an additional soccer field was created at the middle/high school. In previous seasons the teams traveled to use the much smaller field at Seymour Smith Elementary across town. The new field gave the modified program more time to practice and eliminated previous transportation issues.

Kohut acknowledged that Pine Plains should at least be thinking about the possibility of hiring an athletic trainer, a move that many surrounding school districts are beginning to make. Other medical issues included problems surrounding concussions, which in the past few months have become a national issue, particularly over football regulations.

Although Stissing Mountain’s football helmets met standards, the district was able to completely replace them this year due to a private donation.

This year was the first in a few years that the Pine Plains district held a separate falls sports awards presentations, and Kohut said the athletic office was disappointed with the turnout, which was estimated at about 40 percent of the total student athletic body. Moving forward, Kohut said the school would continue to evaluate the best way to honor its athletic teams.

“Maybe individual team-oriented events are the way to go,†he suggested. “The school spends money on those events. The Booster Club pays for the awards. It has to be worthwhile.â€

A total of 260 middle school and high school students participated in athletics this year, Weber reported from a chart that was distributed to the board. Of those 260, nearly 110 were “A†honor roll students.

Broken down by grade, the seventh and tenth grades had the highest level of participation, with more than 50 students from each grade on a fall sports team. The senior class tallied the lowest with 35, and the ninth grade only slightly better at 38.

The boys golf, soccer and cross-country teams were all named to the New York State Public High School Athletic Associations’ Scholar Athlete Teams, as were the girls field hockey and soccer teams.

Athletically, Pine Plains had several successful teams this season, with the volleyball, field hockey and boys soccer squads all making it to sectional tournaments. Two runners from the cross-country team made the state meet.

The winter sports season is already well under way; a schedule of games is printed weekly in The Millerton News on the sports page and online at tcextra.com.

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