Coaldale High School athletes have expressed their preference for track over the great national pasttime of baseball as the spring sports activity for the future.

The choice was left to the students this past week after school authorities announced that only one sport would be sponsored this coming spring. The school’s limited enrollment, plus an equally limited athletic treasury, forced the restriction to either baseball or track.

The student vote was overwhelmingly in favor of track by a 77 to 4 count. The cinder sport has been a long-standing favorite among the student body at Coaldale, dating back long before the pre-World War II years when the school staged its annual Coaldale Interscholastic Track and Field Meet.

Coaldale still holds the distinction of winning six District 11 Class B team championships in track from 1940 to 1951. The two-sport program in recent years has contributed to the Tigers’ downfall on the cinders. Coaldale finished third in the district’s Class B competition last spring at Pottsville with 41 points.

Geno Poli is happy over the students’ selection since track will serve as a perfect conditioner for his football team next fall. Another important factor was that Coaldale encountered trouble scheduling baseball games since only three neighboring schools are also sponsoring the sport.

Reading Eagle January 22, 1961