School board sacks request for new Springdale football uniforms

Allegheny Valley School Board rejected a request from Springdale High School’s head football coach to buy new uniforms the coach said are needed because there’s a shortage of ones that fit.

“I only have about 15 to 20 uniforms that fit properly,” head coach Seth Napierkowski wrote in a letter to the board, read at Monday’s meeting by board member Donald Rocco.

In the letter, Napierkowski said his current players are not as large as those in previous years.

The school board debated the request for about 15 minutes before shooting it down on a 6-3 vote, with members Larry Pollick, Glenna Rinaldi and Antonio Pollino voting in favor of new uniforms. Napierkowski declined to comment on the vote.

Board member Stephen Puskar said buying new uniforms would be “a completely arbitrary and unbudgeted expense.”

The cost of new uniforms would be around $13,000.

Board member Elizabeth Moretti noted that other athletic teams also need uniforms, mentioning, as an example, that the board hasn’t bought new uniforms for the girls softball team for six years.

Superintendent Patrick Graczyk said the “use cycle” for football uniforms is five years and the current uniforms are three or four years old.

Whether a uniform fits a player properly also seems to depend on a player’s attachment to a particular number, according to board member Joelle McFarland. She said she talked to a couple of players over the weekend, and they told her their particular numbers did not fit them properly.

That leaves the question of whether jerseys with other numbers might fit better.

Resident John Murray told the board there were issues with ill-fitting uniforms last season, and he said the board shouldn’t minimize the importance of a particular number a player wears.

“It’s not just a number on a jersey,” Murray said. “That number means something to them. It’s not just something you can throw away.”