Fans are encouraged to “Pack the Gym” Friday night when Charles City hosts Waverly-Shell Rock (WSR) for a girls-boys basketball doubleheader.
New Comets Activities Director Dana Sullivan says it’ll also be a prime opportunity to encourage good sportsmanship.
Sullivan spoke about sportsmanship at the January 9th School Board meeting, the same meeting in which the Board voted to approve a mediation agreement to extend the Go-Hawks’ membership in the Northeast Iowa Conference to the end of the 2023-24 school year.
WSR was voted out of the league by the other five NEIC schools, largely due to the fact that WSR had grown so much larger than the other members, creating competitive imbalance. There was also some concern about WSR’s sportsmanship, an issue Sullivan says Charles City also needs to improve on.
Sullivan encouraged Board members to attend the basketball games Friday night and hoped that good sportsmanship will be on display.
The most notable dust-up between Charles City and Waverly-Shell Rock on the field of play came during the 2020 baseball season when Go-Hawk fans were accused of making racial comments against a black Charles City baseball player. Oelwein left the NEIC three years ago among complaints of sportsmanship concerns against WSR.
