Legacy uses careful consideration when adding new programs, facilities

Twice a year, the students at Hope Charter and Legacy High School take an athletics survey.

The survey gauges the interest level in certain sports among the charter school’s student body.

It is by way of this survey, along with other considerations, that the school has methodically added its individual athletic programs — a process that started with a boys basketball team and now includes football, volleyball, boys basketball, soccer (co-ed) and softball.

“That’s the way that we’ve done it from the very beginning,” Legacy Athletic Director Jarrett Wiggers said. “We try to make sure that we’re constantly assessing the interest that we have and that we’re not rolling things out before we know that our student body and also us, as an administration, are ready for those things to happen.”

Thanks to that approach, the school has been able to avoid stretching itself too thin while consistently growing its athletic presence. Those same surveys had led to the decision to add baseball and girls basketball for the 2015-16 school year, another exciting development for the program.

“The interest in those sports skyrocketed for the last survey, so we went ahead and moved forward,” Wiggers said, noting that the success of the Eagles’ girls volleyball team — which finished as district runner-up this past fall — has contributed to a “renewed interested in our girls athletics (programs).”

The methodology by which programs have been added hasn’t always been easy. Wiggers, who is the head coach of the varsity football team at Legacy, is actually a baseball guy at heart and, were fiscal responsibility not such a priority, might have done so earlier.

“I’m thrilled about (adding) baseball,” Wiggers said. “I was a baseball player myself, and it’s been hard to hold off as long as we have on baseball for me, personally, because it’s one of my favorite sports.”

In addition to an approach that is heavy on fiscal plausibility and genuine interest from the student body, the staff at Legacy also puts an emphasis on fundraising for its programs. In the coming weeks, the Eagles will host both a golf tournament, something the school has done annually for six years, and for the first time it will also put on a 5K run.

The events are scheduled for April 18 and May 9, respectively.

“We try not to charge our athletes a lot of money to participate in our programs,” Dawn Burns, a fundraising, event planning and parent meeting coordinator with the school said. “So we generate as much money (via fundraising) as we can, because it can be quite costly.”

The need for money, which helps buy uniforms and equipment, will be even more pronounced in the near future. Burns and Wiggers confirmed Legacy has acquired the land adjacent to the northwest border of its campus, which is nestled along the Winter Garden-Ocoee border on East Crown Point Road just south of the State Road 429 overpass, and the land is intended to be used for athletics.

The discussions are ongoing about a plan of action for the new space, which has yet to be cleared. One idea is to construct a combination football and soccer field with the a softball field in the corner of that space and a temporary fence available for when that sport is in season. The model has been used by Cornerstone Charter School, in Pine Castle.

“That was kind of our original goal, and I think, ultimately, that’s where we want to end up with it,” Wiggers said.

Even with the growth of sports at a school that, not too long ago, didn’t field a single team, the administration and coaching staff have been careful to keep the priorities in order. Actual on-the-field success for Legacy’s programs has been modest with a few bright spots, but that hasn’t prevented leaders at the school from noticing a clear enhancement of campus life thanks to the programs’ presence.

“(Athletics) brings school pride and morale,” Burns said. “Kids, in the end, want to do better because they have to do well in school in order to participate in sports.”

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FUNDRAISERS

As part of its fundraising efforts for its athletic department, Legacy Charter High School will be hosting a golf tournament April 18 and a 5K run May 9. 

Registration for the golf tournament, which is in its sixth year, end April 10. The tournament will take place starting at 7 a.m. April 18 at Forest Lake Golf Club in Ocoee.

The 5K, titled “Legacy of Hope 5K,” will start and finish at Tanner Hall in Winter Garden and will be put on, in part, by Tri N Run in downtown Winter Garden.

Dawn Burns, a staff member at Legacy who is helping to put on the events, said that in addition to raising funds, these events give the school an opportunity to connect with the West Orange community.

“We are trying to be more involved with the community so they recognize that we are an important part of the community,” Burns said.

For more information on either event, email Burns at [email protected]. Registration for the 5K can be completed at trinrun.com.

Contact Steven Ryzewski at [email protected].