A Message From the Athletic Director

The 2022-23 school and athletic year is upon us. Hopefully, everyone had a wonderful summer break and is now ready to return to school and participate in their chosen sport or sports. 

As always though, there are specific items that must be accomplished prior to participating in any athletic event. Both parents and athletes must create a Final Forms account. In Final Forms, parents and athletes will find information on the Mandatory OHSAA Preseason Meeting. The items that must be covered are: Student Athlete Handbook, OHSAA Preseason Meeting Presentation, OHSAA Student Athlete Eligibility, Concussion Acknowledgement, ImPACT Testing Consent, Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness and the OHSAA Authorization. The athlete and a parent/guardian must review all the of the material and then both the athlete and parent/guardian must acknowledge that they reviewed and understand all of the requirements of being a student athlete at Houston High School. In addition to completing the OHSAA Preseason Meeting, all athletes must have an up to date physical on file at the school. An athletic physical is good for 13 months after it was completed. All these requirements must be completed prior to an athlete participating in any practice, scrimmage, game or any other type of competition. If you have questions on how to accomplish any part, please contact the school.

I sincerely hope everyone has an outstanding year, and GO CATS!

Musical Dedications:

Mr. Dave Reister – “Flight of Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, performed at Humelflug. My introduction to classical music and the realization that I actually may like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QV1RGMLUKE

Mrs. Teresa Knouff – “The Dog That No-one Wanted” by Nightstalker. She knows!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHi6bU5DzfE

Mr. Nick Grieve – “Voodoo Chile” by Jimmy Hendrix, performed by All Them Witches. A long time teacher/principal/coach here at Houston. This song is a reminder of a lot of trips down the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQGqs3uZkoY

Admission Prices

SCAL adopted athletic prices for 22-23 school year:

HS Volleyball and Basketball

Students: $5.00

Adults: $7.00

JH Volleyball and Basketball

Students: $4.00

Adults: $4.00

Adult and Student Activity Passes

As long as governmental mandates remain the same regarding Covid-19, the Athletic Department will again be offering student and adult athletic passes. Athletic passes can be purchased through the front office. The fee for a student pass is $50 and an adult pass can be acquired for $100. The Golden Wildcat pass will also be offered to our senior residents, 65 years or older, free of charge. In addition to the pass, Houston students will have the opportunity to purchase a Houston High School t-shirt for $20. As in the past, with the purchase of the t-shirt the students will be able to enter any home high school or junior high event for $1.

The athletic department will once more be broadcasting all of our athletic events, which are to be held in the auxiliary gym and the high school gym, over the NFHS Network system. A subscription is necessary to view the games. An annual pass can be purchased for $69.99 and a monthly pass can be had for $10.99. To subscribe, please visit nfhsnetwork.com/subscribe/retail.

Mandatory Preseason Meetings

The Ohio High School Athletic Association requires the Houston High School Athletic Department to hold preseason informational meetings for parents and athletes in grades 7-12. A parent and athlete are only required to attend one of these meetings per school year. If a parent and athlete attend the fall meeting, the parent and athlete do not have to attend the winter or spring meetings. Please mark your calendars and plan accordingly. Again, this is a mandatory meeting and your child’s participation will be declined until the requirement is met.

In an effort to make all preseason meetings more efficient, the athletic department worked in conjunction with our technology department to imbed all of the elements required by the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) and Houston High School into the school’s online Oneview system. Therefore, when parents/guardians go online to enroll/update their student’s information for the 2019-20 school year, the mandatory online preseason “meeting” can be completed at the same time. As in the past, both the student and parent/guardian must indicate their understanding and acceptance of each component required by the OHSAA and Houston High School. It is imperative that this component is completed by both the parent and student. Again, this change is being made to streamline and simplify the mandatory preseason meeting process.

To access OneView, on the main menu go to “School Information” then “Registration & Forms” and then click on “OneView- Student Enrollment & Forms.”

Helpful Links for Wildcat Fans

Southwest District Website – Get tournament and other valuable information for our part of the state

Ohio High School Athletic Association – Rules, OHSAA bylaws, tournament information, etc

Coaching Staff

HS Cross Country
Bill McKinney
Teresa Knouff

JH Cross Country
Bill McKinney
Teresa Knouff

HS Golf
Nate Fridley

Varsity Volleyball
Lauren Vagedes
Sara Mowery, Assistant

JV Volleyball
Gina Maier

JH Volleyball
Dana Anthony, 8th Grade
Janelle Hillard, 7th Grade

HS Girls Track & Field
Sharon Roeth
Glenn Brown, Assistant

HS Boys Track & Field
Jack Earl
Steve Mowery, Assistant

JH Girls Track & Field
Lisa Earl
Wes Ritter
Joseph Earl

JH Boys Track & Field
Lisa Earl
Wes Ritter
Joseph Earl

Varsity Softball
Tammy Vondenhuevel
Beth Shaffer, Assistant

Varsity Baseball
Dan Barker
Mike Ely, Assistant

JV Baseball
TBA

Varsity Girls Basketball
Brian Gillespie
Tammy Vondenhuevel, Assistant

JV Girls Basketball
Matt Phyillaier

JH Girls Basketball
TBA, 8th Grade
Madison Curtner, 7th Grade

Varsity Boys Basketball
Caleb Fledderjohann
Zach Freeling, Assistant

JV Boys Basketball
Steve Mowery

Freshman Boys Basketball
Brian Crim

JH Boys Basketball
Kennedy Hickman, 8th Grade
Brian Helman, 7th Grade

Cheerleading
Kim Voisard, High School
Jonna Raffel, Junior High