Student athletes receive athletic passes to all OHS sporting events
Many students have been involved with OHS sports for a very long time, and this year, many of them have the opportunity to become eligible for athletic passes.
Oxford High School was already familiar with the concept of booster passes, but this year Athletic Director Mike Martin instituted a program that allowed eligible athletes to receive athletic passes that allowed them to get into all middle school and high school sporting events with the exception of playoffs.
“This year, I got permission from the superintendent to offer athletic passes for athletes,” Martin said. “This is the criteria: they have to have been on the athletic team for a previous year, the entire year, they have to be a student in good standing academically, they had to have passed or possibly if they hadn’t passed, they could go to summer school and become eligible, so they have to be eligible to play their athletic sport the next year, and they had to be at least a sophomore.”
Martin got this concept from one of his previous jobs after noticing the lack of student athlete attendance at other sporting events, so he investigated. He found that many athletes couldn’t attend other sporting events because they just didn’t have the money to watch half of a game for the full price since they would have to leave halfway through the game for sports practice. Martin instituted the athletic passes at his old school, Northside High School in Jackson, Tenn., and according to Martin, it took off and raised student attendance and school spirit.
“Our crowds became huge, and it was because we had athletes numbers, say like Oxford does, but they started coming to support the other teams,” Martin said. “If they could only come for 30 minutes, they didn’t have to pay to come in. They could use that card and go in and watch and cheer for 30 minutes, hang out with their friends, cheer their fellow athletes on.”
Martin has wanted to do this at Oxford ever since he came to the Oxford School District, and this year, he was, finally, in the position to do so.
“We had to put that to pencil and paper as best as we could estimate the [financial] loss, and I think that we are definitely going to absorb it. We have already done it, but I think that the investment will be well worth the amount of school spirit that we would raise and the support that the kids [will get].”
Martin has gotten very positive results from parents, athletes, and coaches.
“It is a great opportunity for them to go support each other at sporting events, “ head football coach Chris Cutcliffe said. “It’s not something that’s given out, it’s something that’s earned.”
Martin also implemented a captain’s program for all athletic teams in order to build student leadership and utilize it on and off the field. He also wants all the captains of the teams to start negotiating deals for their team to go watch another team.
“Now that we have a captain’s program, the captains of the football team can be approached by the captains of the baseball team, and go ‘We’re all going to be in our baseball caps, and we are coming to support you. You remember it when we play baseball this spring,’ and they can make deals,” Martin said.
Martin is hoping that these new changes will be successful, and if they are, he might consider expanding the program to include more students, such as band members since they are close to the athletics program, if the school financially can.
“They are going to see how it works this year, see if it actually does what they hope it will do, which is get more kids to the games,” band director Mel Morse said. “If that works out and it does work and financially it’s something they can feasibly do, then, they’ll look at possibly opening it up to more students.”
For now, Martin is interested in seeing where this program will go, and he can’t wait to see how it works out this year.
“I am just hopeful that it catches fire and continues to grow,” Martin said.
Change in Beta club officials bring changes, new goals
Oxford High School’s Beta Club has experienced a change in officers, goals, and service projects this school year and is hoping to increase the amount of volunteering in the community, especially within the school, after bringing these new changes.
Beta Club is a national organization that works to advance the ideals of academic achievement, leadership, and service among middle school and high school students. OHS’s Beta Club is sponsored by English teacher Amanda Witt and Math teacher Lindsey Sneed.
“They have to work towards making our school and our community a better place, so it’s about leadership and service, “ Witt said. “Its teaching students to not just focus on being academically successful and to help others and being the kind of person that reaches out, the kind of person that notices need. ”
In the past, Beta Club members have been given service opportunities, but they volunteered as individuals instead of the Beta group as a whole. Sneed and Witt are hoping to change that this year, and they have already planned some group volunteer projects to do this year.
“We want to make sure that Beta Club is focusing the majority of our efforts on the needs that take place inside of our school, so, we have recognized that all of our students come from a different place, and we want to make sure that they come to school with everything that they need,” said Sneed.
Reorganizing and maintaining the Oxford High School clothes closet that is for students that are in need of materials, such as clothes or textbooks, is going to be one of the Beta Club’s service projects this year that directly impacts the school. Beta Club also wants to make the clothes closet known to all students because many that can benefit from it may not know about the clothes closet.
“It’s for people that don’t have clothes or need a new coat or anything, any kind of materials. I would love it if we could get everybody on that,” senior Ann Fava Peters, Beta Club President, said. “We could all start donating and organizing the closet and get it more well known to others, so that they can bring their clothes here instead of going to Goodwill or just throwing them in the trash.”
While Beta is going to be helping the school with the clothes closet, Witt and Sneed also want to give back and volunteer within the community of Oxford.
“There are some other needs in the community, and as a club, we can work with More Than A Meal, we can work with Boys and Girls Club,” Witt said. “We have around a 150 members, so there are a lot of different talents and needs.”
Beta Club also has officers that represent each grade, which is one aspect that is different from Oxford Middle School’s Beta Club. Many new and old members like having officers and are excited to see how it will be used this year.
“I felt like each class could be represented by people, and they could make sure their idea get heard and their wants and needs from Beta Club can be heard,” Peters said.
Witt and Sneed have Beta members elect officers so that there is an opportunity for the officers to develop leadership skills and take control of the club.
“Mrs. Sneed and I both take the approach of, as sponsors, it is not our club. It’s not ours, and it’s not ours to force a certain direction, but, as teachers and educators, to be supportive of the students and help them, “ Witt said. “If they need me to make a phone call as an adult to another adult to set up a More-Than-A-Meal, that’s where we can be helpful and to give them that adult support but not force any direction, it needs to be student directed. There’s encouragement there with the officers to give them that opportunity for leadership.”
Beta Club has done successful fundraising in the past with the candy grams that students could buy to give to friends, teachers, or any other faculty, but Witt and Sneed are hoping to revamp that fundraiser and make it more enjoyable for students and Beta Club members.
“We'd like to do the candy grams again, but instead of just doing the candy canes, we might branch out a little bit,” Sneed said.
Witt and Sneed are also hoping to introduce a new option for seniors concerning how they pick up their graduation robes. Seniors could choose to honor any educator in their lives at the robing ceremony by having that teacher presents their graduation robe to them. The teacher would not be told who is honoring them or why, but they would be invited to the ceremony to hear the student read their essay they wrote for that teacher.
“I have been at schools that have done it,” Witt said, “and it is such a nice event in the spring. People really come to enjoy it and look forward to it, so we are hoping to have good participation.”
Beta Club is going to have a busy year, and they are really hoping that all of their members achieve all of the goals that they want for the school and the community this year.
“In January, if you get an invitation, we’d encourage you to accept if you are interested in leadership and helping your community, “ Sneed said.