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18 Comments

  1. 1

    Phillip Acton

    Karen Johns might be available…

  2. 2

    Debbie Renfroe Rogers

    Karen Johns has the best resume and a a PROVEN record! She put Trussville on the map!

  3. 3

    Wendi McConnell Peters

    My vote is for Karen Johns! Our recent success has been a result of her decision making.

  4. 5

    Thomas Kendrick

    Jack Wood put HT on the map as far as Football goes. Regardless of how successful the 2016 Football season was,coach Wood was successful in building a football program that was horrible pre 1983.For 18 yrs he developed boys into men. We are very thankful for that. People need to know their history before making ludicrous comments.

  5. 6

    Frog Price

    Well said, big guy. Once again you have shown why you are THE MAN.

  6. 7

    Scott Buttram

    Thank you for the kind words, Frog Price.

  7. 8

    Chuck Biddinger

    One of the rare benefits of being on Facebook is being able to offer my opinion when no one asked. 🙂

  8. 9

    Meg O'Neal Pritchard

    Just out of curiosity, how or why are athletics under the academic charter of a school? I have always been under the impression we have school sports because we just want to for lack of a better way of saying it. I can’t figure out how sports are academically relevant. I am sure it builds character but character is not math. Not arguing just curious of the rationale.

  9. 10

    Scott Buttram

    Meg, I think you’re asking for a history lesson that I’m unqualified to teach. I have a lot of the same questions. In Europe, athletics are club sports unaffiliated with schools. As much as I would like to see that here, Pandora’s box is too wide open.

  10. 11

    Meg O'Neal Pritchard

    Haha! Your article is so nice, I assumed you knew the answer. Yes I am more of a fan of the club sports than state funded sports. I know it is way to ingrained in society to change. But I still continue to dream that one day we will place as much importance both in respect and pay scale on the chemistry teacher as we do a football coach. I am clearly in the minority especially in this state. 😂😂

  11. 12

    Scott Buttram

    I’m a former high school coach, my son is currently a coach, and I agree with you 100%.

  12. 13

    Ryan Jennings

    Meg, I was a high school athlete. In soccer and basketball, and several other individual sports like swimming, tennis etc students are more likely to get a college scholarship through club organizations and travel leagues. Im really glad you made your post. Ive never even thought about the “why” before though. It is so engrained now though especially football with club league ending after 5th grade, that that sport will most definitely never change. Really intrigued about this topic now. Haha. If you guys dig into it any deeper, and find out more, I’d like to hear about “why” it is the way it is.

  13. 14

    Wendy Dunn Treglown

    Great thought provoking question- one that I have never considered. Sports have been a part of schools for as long as I can remember and even before that. One plus side of having school affiliated sports as opposed to only having club sports, in my opinion, is that you can involve many more children. There are children that wouldn’t get to participate in sports because their parents can’t or won’t make the time to get them to practices, games, meets, etc.
    That could stem from many reasons- parents that have to work a lot- regardless of whether it’s blue collar work or the fact that they’re doctors/nurses, etc.- money issues, lack of clubs near every child’s home, etc.
    I always love to hear the stories about inner city kids that, instead of turning to drugs or crime, turn to sports and really excel in that sport. In no way do I think that only inner city areas have issues with drugs and crime. There are many affluent areas that have their fair share of these issues. This is just my two cents, for what it’s worth. I think sports in schools is a good thing. It can help to motivate an otherwise unmotivated child and possibly give the kids that don’t “love” reading, writing, and arithmetic, something to look forward to and strive to obtain.

  14. 15

    Scott Buttram

    Thanks to all that read and commented on my op-ed. I received some information yesterday that I believe is very pertinent to my column. An individual who applied for the AD position called tell me that they had been brought in to discuss the position with three school officials on Thursday. Among those three school officials were Tim Salem and Lisa Berry. In my view, that is exactly the approach that should be taken in filling the athletic director position.

  15. 16

    Meg O'Neal Pritchard

    Excellent! Thanks for the follow up.

  16. 17

    Meg O'Neal Pritchard

    I don’t disagree that sports are tremendously helpful to students. It is as vital to some kids as many other services offered to other kids for different reasons. There will always be competing factions of how to responsibly spend money. I think I lean more to the European club model. It certainly isn’t perfect but nothing ever is. My concern is that we have so many things for athletes, IEP students and GaTe students that regular hard working students that would greatly benefit from an awesome science lab get lost in the shuffle. I would love to see more travel of groups to Spain when they are learning Spanish and D.C. when they are learning history, etc… Bottom line is there are so many things and choices to be made no board, principal can please everyone and we the people often only see things through our issues. I want to be open minded enough to be persuadable on issues that others face and not put only my issues at the top of the list.

  17. 18

    Meg O'Neal Pritchard

    Interesting about the clubs and scholarships. We play on a competitive soccer team with a child that is in the Olympic training program and they even put the club level first. I do believe sports are important and a live saving outlet to some kids. I just found it interesting that they were under the academic umbrella.

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