Student athletes and their parents gathered Monday in the Oconto Falls High School Performing Arts Center to hear the latest on the fall sports season.
The meeting, which is a new part of the process for Panthers athletes, covered several topics, including eligibility requirements, academic standards, health reporting and Panther Pride fundraising efforts.
Jerry Moynihan, entering his third year as Oconto Falls athletic director, felt it was time to introduce more interaction between coaches, parents and staff.
“It’s just a start of some of the changes that I think will help our communication for the whole department,” Moynihan said. “It’s important to get everyone on the same page. Sometimes there’s misinformation. It’s best sometimes to hear it straight up, this is what we expect.”
One area that Moynihan addressed was student athletes with F grades and their eligibility.
“In the past, the F-list and eligibility was based on the semester and the quarter grades,” Moynihan said. “There was some confusion. We made it a little more clear that it will be the quarter grade. It was new last year so we wanted to emphasize that.”
The efforts of Panther Pride to improve the school’s athletic fields was also addressed by Moynihan.
“It kind of all flows together,” Moynihan said. “I know Panther Pride is an outside group, but they’re doing everything for us. As many of these people I can get to come out and join, the better off we are.”
Next spring the school will unveil its new softball diamonds, and Moynihan hopes other fields will also will be improved over time.
The second portion of the meeting was led by Jason Terry, Bellin Health athletic trainer, who addressed the expansion of concussion testing to middle school football.
Moynihan said, combined with efforts of the youth football program, every football player from fourth grade on will be tested for concussions.
“That’s exciting because there’s so much out there about that concussion stuff that we really want to make sure that our i’s are dotted and our t’s are crossed,” Moynihan said.
Moynihan also got to introduce his coaches, including a new head football coach for the first time in 35 years. Jeff Trochil, who takes over for the retired Duane Rogatzki, handed out equipment and conducted player testing earlier in the day.
“I’m excited for our new football coach,” Moynihan said. “Just excited that some positive things are going to happen there. We struggled the last couple of years. I think the things he’ll do are going to be a good change. Change some attitudes.”
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