The Montoursville Area School Board was visited by numerous supporters of the soccer team at its meeting Tuesday.
Jennifer Marriott, a teacher at the Jersey Shore Area School District and wife of the head coach of the Montoursville High School soccer team, addressed the board about the decision made to change the date of a soccer game originally scheduled for Oct. 7 to the next day at a different location due to field conditions, but still played a football game on the original field that same night.
The soccer game was originally scheduled to be played in their home stadium and was rescheduled and played at the Balls Mills Complex on Lycoming Creek Road.
Marriott, backed by a number of other Montoursville soccer supporters present at the meeting, said she was concerned that soccer fans and athletes would think the district is favoring one sports team over another and brought the issue to the board because she feels this action was completely opposite of what she expects from the district.
"Why was every effort made to not play the game, instead of to play the game?" Marriott said. "They deserve to play a game in their own town."
Daniel D. Taormina, MAHS principal, said the decision to move the game was made on Thursday, which at that point it seemed as though the conditions of the field were not ideal to play the soccer game.
"With all the rain we had this fall, it's been hard and with what we had to work with on Thursday, we did not feel it would be playable," Taormina said.
The football game could not have been rescheduled because it was the homecoming game, and there was no other option for the game to be postponed or played somewhere else, according to Taormina.
Marriott's presentation to the board ended in a roaring applause by the many soccer supporters present at the meeting.
Taormina said the district is hoping to schedule another soccer game at the home field to make up for the one lost.
