The Conneaut Area Senior High School (CASH) football field will see more action than its used to this fall.

At a special meeting Monday, the Conneaut School Board voted unanimously to have as many sports as possible on the field, as well as the CASH competition gym. This move is aimed at allowing more parents the ability to see their kids compete while meeting COVID-19 safety restrictions.

Under the school district’s current policy, no spectators will be allowed at school sports due to limitations put out by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association. In accordance with Gov. Tom Wolf’s safety guidelines, the PIAA has mandated that schools only allow 25 people to be present at an indoor sporting event and 250 at an outdoor sporting event at any one time, with attendance limited to student athletes, coaches, officials and staff.

As this would keep most parents from watching their kids, the Conneaut School Board voted in July to an agreement with NFHS Network to install two camera systems in the district, one at the football field and one at the CASH gym. These cameras will be activated during games and livestream the action to a weblink the school district will provide to anyone wishing to watch.

With the cameras at the football field, that would allow football games and the finish lines of cross country meets to be filmed. At Monday’s meeting, however, Conneaut area parent Jason White asked that the board allow the soccer teams to play on the field as well. White’s daughter is a senior at CASH and a soccer player.

“I’m thinking why not let these boys and girls play on the high school (football) field that is all ready to go?” White said. “You just need the nets from the soccer field pulled over.”

In discussing the idea, Conneaut Athletic Director John Acklin cautioned that allowing the soccer teams to play on the field could adversely affect the condition of the field.

“A soccer field takes a lot of beating,” Acklin said. “In the area around the goal, we can never keep any grass whatsoever. It gets torn out.”

Acklin also said that due to how the football field is set up, it could be difficult to retrieve stray soccer balls if they get kicked out of bounds.

“Our fence, as you know, is against the bleachers basically on both sides,” Acklin said of the football field. “Which means that any ball that gets kicked is going to go out of play. It’s going to go into the stands, it’s going to go onto the baseball field, it’s going to go someplace that’s going to be much more difficult. I’m not saying you can’t do it, I’m just saying it’s going to be much more difficult to retrieve.”

However, boys’ soccer head coach Scott Hinterleiter, who also sometimes works with the girls’ team, didn’t think the boundaries would be as much of an issue.

“I mean we play teams like Meadville and it’s the same situation there,” Hinterleiter said. “You kick the ball, it goes into the stands. Franklin is the same way.”

Board members expressed support of the idea of letting the teams play.

“I think we should play as many things as we can play on that field so every parent has the opportunity to watch their student athlete play,” board member GW Hall said.

Board member Theressa Miller pushed for the field and gym to also be open to middle school sports teams as much as possible to allow the parents of those kids to also watch their kids play.

Acklin, while expressing some concern regarding scheduling, pointed out that using the football field would allow soccer games to be played at night, allowing more flexibility on when games are played. Board member Kathleen Klink acknowledged the difficulties, but still sided with her fellow members of the board.

“We’re making your job a nightmare, but I think that we need to make the motion read that we get as many sports under the two sets of cameras we have as we possibly can,” Klink said before making the motion that lead to the unanimous vote.

In addition to sporting events, the football field cameras will also be used to film halftime shows at football games. The CASH band and cheerleader squad will be allowed to perform at home games only due to COVID-19 restricitons.

Sean P. Ray can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at sray@meadvilletribune.com.