YES 4 ATHLETICS!

5 Reasons to Vote Yes for Athletics

The referendum plan includes targeted upgrades to the athletics facilities at Mayville High School.  These upgrades include a brand new appropriately sized weight room and fitness facility, relocation of the wrestling area back into the high school, creation of a commons area near the competition gym, addition of new concessions and restrooms near the competition gym, and a complete remodel and redesign of the locker rooms and associated areas.  This needed referendum is crucial for athletics for these 5 reasons!

1. Our Student Athletes Need a Modern Weight Room

“The new weight room fitness center is long overdue” states Mayville Football Coach Tom Noennig.  Mayville High School wasn’t built with a weight room or fitness center.  When the high school was built, we simply didn’t have the modern training techniques that athletes use today to compete at the highest levels.  The current coaches and teachers have converted a stage built to host gym assemblies into a makeshift weight room.  While the equipment in there is correct and modern, the space itself is simply not large enough, the room is overcrowded, and as a result our athletes don’t receive ideal training.  Just look at the attached picture depicting the overcrowding.  It’s like that every day.  We expect these athletes to give their best; we should give them the best facilities we can.

2. Bring Wrestling Back to the High School

Moving the weight equipment off of the gym’s stage gives important side benefits.  First, the gym’s stage is supposed to be for all school assemblies and community events.  It’s currently not being used often for this because it is an immense amount of work to relocate all the weight equipment.   Even better, the Mayville Cardinal wrestling team, which can’t currently can’t practice at the high school due to the lack of space, can move back!  The gym’s stage is adequately sized to house the wrestling team when using portable wrestling mats.  Passing the referendum gives the high school both a place to hold its all school assemblies and the wrestling team a place to practice.

3. Modernize the Locker Rooms

The training and locker room facilities are in desperate need of renovation. The facilities study committee athletics subcommittee put together a presentation detailing the inadequate space for locker rooms, storage, medical treatment, security, team laundry facilities, and other needs.   Click here for the presentation.  The referendum plan addresses these concerns by entirely renovating the space to use the square footage efficiently and provide 21^st century locker rooms for our male and female athletes.   These facilities are used by every student at Mayville High School, not just those on athletic teams.

4. Better for the Fans

The current competition gym itself is a great place to watch a game. However, the surrounding area is a complete mess.  The bathrooms are inadequate, concessions are downstairs, and teams come in and out through the admission line.  The referendum plan reworks this by demolishing the two small restrooms to create an athletic commons area, by building new restrooms and concessions areas that maintain security for the rest of the school, and by improving the traffic flow.  All of this will make the total experience watching a Mayville Cardinals game better.

5. Invest in Fitness with Conservative Common Sense

Investing in fitness and physical fitness is a priority with the growing obesity epidemic.  The current referendum plan, based on feedback from the community, does not include a new gym.  While more space is always better, the multi-million-dollar price tag made a gym not a top priority.  Instead the modest investment in athletics is targeted exactly where our students need it; the locker rooms and training facilities that all students use are upgraded.  The new weight room and fitness center will allow physical education teachers to instruct students how to best keep themselves fit.  Going this route allows maximum use of the existing structures at a lower cost while still providing substantial impact for the students and student athletes.

The current referendum plan is the result of years of hard work, research, and planning on how best to help our students.  Diverse community citizens, teachers, and administrators participated in a Facilities Study Committee and dug into the details of what needs our district has and how to meet them.  The current referendum takes all that input and turns it into a detailed strategy for all three schools.  We hope that for these five reasons, you choose to invest in the Mayville schools and vote YES! on April 4, 2017.  Please help us get the word out.  Like and share this post with your friends, either on Facebook, via e-mail, or the old fashioned way!