York County Tech sports: ‘If they took something like that away it really would destroy the school’
York County School of Technology is not used to full houses at its home varsity football games. Here, a faithful few observe Vo-Tech’s team as it faces off against Delone Catholic in October 2008. The program gained the spotlight for a moment in the early 1990s when two girls played football. (See below.) Background posts: Presidents visit York, alive and via funeral trains, Unusual valve gave steam whistle prominence in World War II and Northeastern last York/Adams public school to field football team.
Should perennial sports loser York County Technical School, known for years at York County Vocational Technical School, continue to field teams?
York Daily Record/Sunday News sports writer Frank Bodani probed that question as part of his 22-part Greatest Athletes series.
Tech athletic director Rob Caruso seemed to settle the question and sports have continued on in the York Township school: …
“If you don’t have athletics, a lot of other things are going to be gone. Is it really a school anymore?
“What you’ll end up with is kids walking in and taking classes and walking out. There will be no ownership or pride. There are lessons in athletics that are taught. . . . It’s a memory you’ve made.
“If they took something like that away it really would destroy the school.”
A lack of athletics would have cost Tech’s football team one bright moment in the sun in 1991.
“Never to be Forgotten” tells the story:
“Valerie Fryberger and Renee Houseal are thought to be the first girls to play prep football in the county. They are members of the York County Vocational-Technical School team. Coach Darryl Markley supports the girls’ decision to play on the gridiron.”
