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Badin Football, Soccer Eye Spooky Nook Stadium

HAMILTON--Badin High School confirmed Wednesday that they are in talks with the City of Hamilton and Spooky Nook to play future football and soccer games at the Spooky Nook Champion Mill complex now under construction. Principal Brian Pendergest made the announcement in a letter to parents concerning the Ram's 2020 fall sports schedules. Pendergest says the football team will play 3 home games at Fairfield Alumni Stadium next season, and all home soccer games will be played at Fairfield. The announcement was made after reports surfaced of scheduling conflicts involving Hamilton High's Virgil Schwarm Stadium. Both the Hamilton City School District and Badin issued news releases Tuesday evening.

Hamilton CSD Press Release

Hamilton City Schools has completed its fall of 2020 scheduling of Virgil M. Schwarm Stadium for activities that involve Hamilton City School students. 

The scheduling of student activities at Virgil M. Schwarm Stadium in a high school with well over 2,500 students and extra-curricular activities that include football, soccer, and a large, competitive marching band is a challenge.  

In addition, many of these activities are not flexible as the Greater Miami Conference has scheduled games several years in advance. 

 

Below is the Hamilton High School home football schedule for the 2020 season:

August 28: vs. West Clermont (Youth Night)

September 11: vs. Princeton (Heroes Night)

September 25: vs. Fairfield (Homecoming)

October 09: vs. Mason (Middle School Night)

October 23: Middletown (Senior Night)

 

These dates have been communicated to Hamilton Badin and the Hamilton City School district has given Badin exclusive rights to the following Friday nights for football:

September 04

September 18

October 02

October 16

October 30

 

Adding to the 5 nights listed above, Badin was given 12 additional dates the stadium was available. The 17 dates do not include times submitted to Badin where fields at the Freshman Campus would also be available.

Furthermore, Hamilton Badin has elected to play games in the past several years at alternative venues, including Monroe and Fairfield High School.  

Given the fact that less than 25% of all Badin students reside in Hamilton, it is logical that various venues are used by Badin so that students can participate in the community where they reside.

As a partner in education, Hamilton City Schools look forward to a strong working relationship with Hamilton Badin in the future.
 


Badin High School Release

 

Recently, there was an article written and posted on social media regarding the use of Hamilton High School’s Virgil Schwarm stadium. I would like to take the opportunity to update our parents, students, alumni and fans on a recently reported change to the location of our football and soccer games starting next school year.

Badin High School and the Hamilton City School District (HCSD) have enjoyed a very positive working relationship for many years. We work closely with the Central Office of the HCSD in various ways, including personnel, state and federal funds, busing, and stadium rentals. This relationship has been strong and we appreciate their willingness to work so closely with us.

In previous years when there have been issues that had a negative impact on our relationship with HSCD, we have been able to work through them. We have met with the HCSD board and superintendent to discuss any issues and find a solution.

For over 50 years we have rented various Hamilton City School stadiums for our football and our soccer teams. Before soccer became a high school sport, we played football at the old Garfield stadium. We had a working relationship with Hamilton High in order to accommodate both teams. This worked well for both schools. When soccer became a high school sport in the 1980’s, we again worked with the district to find a workable solution to the additional games. Hamilton High would schedule their home games and would send us available dates. Our Athletic Director would go through the process of contacting our opponents to move games around to fill in the available dates. This process continued when all games were moved over to Virgil Schwarm Stadium. Even though there were a few hiccups over the years, for the most part it has worked well for many years. In recent years, the usage of the stadium has become more difficult to maneuver. The number of conflicts has grown.

In the summer of 2014, we were informed by the Hamilton High School administration that our junior varsity soccer teams would need to play their games at the Hamilton Freshman school and the varsity would play at the stadium. This was an inconvenience but one we were willing to work with, since the same held true for the Hamilton High soccer program. This arrangement has been part of our rental agreement with HCSD for the last 5 years. We have worked with this and have had a system in place to make sure fans were not charged at both stadiums.

In mid-September, our AD received the list of available dates from the Hamilton High AD for the 2020 season. Our Athletic Director, Geoff Melzer, started scheduling soccer games based on those dates. On Thursday, September 26, Geoff received an email from the Hamilton AD stating the open dates Hamilton could host Badin soccer or football next year; all other dates were filled with Hamilton soccer, football or marching band practice. On Friday, September 27, the two spoke and he was informed that none of the dates Geoff Melzer had already sent would work. Geoff asked why these dates had changed, and the response was “the powers to be have told me that we have a new process for scheduling.” Obviously, this put us in a bad spot as Geoff had already started scheduling games.

After speaking with the Hamilton Principal and Athletic Director, it was very clear that Badin athletic teams would have very limited use of Virgil Schwarm Stadium for home games and we would be forced to look elsewhere for open fields. I expressed my disappointment with the Hamilton principal, but he told me he had the backing of the Central Office and Hamilton City School Board as well.

We will still work closely with their Central Office personnel and continue to have a positive working relationship with those with whom we work with. During my time here at Badin, we have enjoyed working with the district and look forward to continuing that relationship. We will work with Hamilton High School for Civics Day and for the limited number of sporting events we are able to hold there next year.

During the last few years, we have played a football game each season at Fairfield. They have been very easy to work with and have been open to Badin playing more games there. Geoff Melzer has been working with Fairfield to schedule our soccer games at their field. As of now, we are planning on playing all of our home soccer games at Fairfield, as well as three home football games.

It is unfortunate that we are in this position with Hamilton, but we look forward to working with Fairfield for the next few years as we play our games at their facilities. I would ask that the Badin community remain positive and refrain from posting negative comments on social media. Negativity will not help the situation. We are currently working with the city of Hamilton and the owners of Spooky Nook to move our soccer and football games to the new Spooky Nook Sports Champion Mill when it opens.

If you have any questions, please contact me at school by phone: 513-863-3993 or by email: bpendergest@BadinHS.org.

God Bless and Go Rams,
Brian D. Pendergest
Principal

 

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