Former Clay High School principal Rick Heintschel knows a thing or two about organizing athletics.

Heintschel served on the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Northwest District Athletic Board back in the late 1990s and was the Class AAA representative to the OHSAA for four years.

“That’s the organization that monitors everything in high school athletics in the state of Ohio, and they are a good group of people. It was a great learning experience for me to have the opportunity to work with (the) Columbus (office) and things like that,” Heintschel said.

An administrator at Clay for nearly 20 years, the 63-year-old Heintschel is now the program coordinator at The Maritime Academy of Toledo, a charter school downtown. He wants to see athletic programs there mature.

“It’s kind of an integral part of society — part of the competition piece and all of that stuff,” said Heintschel. “Everything that athletics brings to kids certainly has evolved over the last 30, 40 years, but it’s still the basic premise. You want to have some competitive activity for the kids, and if you can manage that, fantastic. It’s tough financially to be able to do that.”

Last year, Maritime Academy entered into probationary status with the OHSAA. Once TMAT gets full membership, it would have equal status with other high schools like Eastwood and Clay, for example. The school would have the opportunity to enter into tournaments. Maritime Academy actually hosted an OHSAA coaches training session on September 14, 2010.

In Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland charter schools have joined the OHSAA and are participating in tournaments, but not in Toledo. Heintschel would like to see TMAT and other Toledo area charter high schools reach full membership, admitting it’s a tough assignment.

“Right now for us, I don’t see us meeting the minimum requirements of the OHSAA,” Heintschel said. “Obviously, recognizing the need to offer interscholastic athletics to all of our kids is an important thing. Meeting the requirements of the state association given the requirements number-wise and sports-wise, we just don’t meet those criteria at this point in time.

“I’m not sure what the status is of other charter schools in Northwest Ohio, but it is what it is at this point. Is it something we are going to look at down the road? Certainly. Right now, it’s just getting our program established from an academic perspective and then the extracurriculars will take care of themselves.”

In the fall of of 2008, the Community School Athletic Conference was formed by Dan Reese (Winterfield Venture Academy), Rick Brown (Maritime Academy), Anna Gentle (Horizon Science Academy), Melissa Szczepaniak (Bennett Venture Academy), and Greg Sauter (New Bedford Academy). 

The league serves five high schools (Maritime, Great Lakes Academy, Horizon Science, Toledo Islamic Academy, and Toledo Prep Academy) and 15 middle schools. TMAT students are called “Cadets,” which is also the nickname for its athletic teams.

The intent was to create an athletic league for like-minded schools that found themselves scrambling to set up games, find officials, and were shut out from the continuity and ease of scheduling that established conferences have.  Just recently, the CSAC has expanded not only its board, but also building to more than 15 local middle schools. The vision had quickly became a reality.

League sports offered include cross country, flag football, volleyball, and basketball. Flag football is not an OHSAA sport, which means the five schools just compete against each other for now and schedules are limited. Horizon Science historically has scheduled outside varsity programs in boys’ basketball. This fall, TMAT did not have a football team and as of last week was still considering whether to offer basketball this winter.

Seeking facilities
One of the difficulties the charter schools have is finding facilities to play sports, and charter school administrators are not so sure the public school districts are going to cooperate. Most charter schools have taken over facilities that do not include gymnasiums or do not have property nearby that can be converted into athletic fields.

“We don’t have that capability at this point in time but we certainly may have that down the road,” Heintschel said. “Our basketball program practices down at the YMCA here, down by the old Riverside Hospital. You need a hardwood floor and a couple baskets, and you go for it.”

Heintschel says Maritime was approached by the Catholic Diocese’s Westminster Gym on Superior Street to play home games there, but the facility is so ancient he actually played there while in grade school.

In last spring’s 2010 edition of The Cadet Chronicle, the TMAT school newspaper, student writer Marquarius Hall asked faculty member Patricia Eaton why Maritime should have a baseball team — a sport the school does not have now.

Eaton responded, “Baseball teams have 25 man rosters, plus many minor league affiliations. Athletes have a better chance of being drafted and playing professional baseball. There’s a greater chance of earning a baseball scholarship.”

Nick Harris, then a senior and the school newspaper chief editor, responded in Hall’s column about another sport: “I like golf because it is a very challenging sport and many things you have to change throughout the time you play to improve your game. It’s also a fun because it’s calmer than other sports and doesn’t require running around.”

Eaton also responded about softball in the column and another faculty member, Josh Rose, spoke up about golf. The interest is there.

Until the school’s sports programs mature, Heintschel says there are other more important issues.

“A lot of these (charter) schools are credit-recovery schools and online schools and things like that, and it’s kind of difficult to get those kids involved with the (sports) program,” Heintschel said. “They are looking for just the credits. At The Maritime Academy, we focus on a specific curriculum and getting kids into the maritime industry at some point down the road. For our program, we have the greatest facilities in the world. We’re right on the Maumee River.

“Now, our real issue is maintaining our student enrollment so the programs can maintain themselves. Right now, we are focusing on getting our enrollment up. If you are not here for what we’re here for, even though we do take kids for a general education program, the true focus is preparing kids for the maritime industry or a service academy. That may not be for every young person.”

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