Can Residents Afford to Commit to Student Athletic Programs?
And even more importantly, can we afford not to?
Michael Preston said that when he first came to Bartlett Yancey High School (BYHS) as Athletic Director a year ago, he was expecting a "Friday Night Lights" environment.
The popular television drama, "Friday Night Lights" told the story of a high school football team that was the social center of a fictional, close-knit, rural Texas community.
Preston explained that since BYHS was the only high school in rural Caswell County, he had assumed that high school sporting events would be more popular here and seen as key threads in the social fabric of our community, like in "Friday Night Lights." He said he had envisioned the whole town coming out to support the local team at games and seeing Buccaneer mascots in the windows of all the local businesses.
Preston admits that he was disappointed to instead find half-empty bleachers and low participation rates.
"Do you have to win to get excited, or do you have to get excited to win," Preston asked, comparing it to the question of which comes first, the chicken or the egg?
