Sounds like they want lights. Good for them. Hope they get it done!

Cov Cath just received a $865,000 donation from the Griffin family. They are using the money to buy the old Church of the Nazarene next door. No immediate plans, but long term plans include demolishing the church building, putting in new tennis courts beyond the baseball outfield wall, possibly a couple of smaller out-buildings, and "additional athletic facilities upgrades".

 

They had been previously fund raising and saving for these improvements, and now all of the previously acquired funds could go elsewhere. The Griffin donation was offered to Cov Cath three days ago, and presented just yesterday, and already I've heard three people (including two athletic booster members) mention the word "lights".

Football is meant to be played on Friday nights. Yes they should put in lights and donate blinds for the people who don't want them.

Can we stop the "CovCath can't just get a hold of money when they want it." argument? Yeah, neither can Elder.

Can we stop the "CovCath can't just get a hold of money when they want it." argument? Yeah, neither can Elder.

 

I see where you're going with this, and I would mention this: There is a very definite possibility that this is the largest single lump-sum donation in the history of Cov Cath. We get donations regularly, yes, but in tens and hundreds of dollars - not tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. We were thrilled to receive a donation of this size, but it's by no means an every day occurrence.

 

For those of us who have been involved in the annual appeal, we've seen the weekly ledgers. Even when we have a specific fund raising effort, the donations come in primarily in $25, $50, and $100 amounts. Those donations are all very appreciated and they do add up, but Cov Cath's annual appeal is lucky to make $865,000 in an average year, and that money goes primarily to facilities & educational materials. What little money is set aside for athletics generally isn't even enough to get new jerseys for all the teams (that usually ends up being each team's own responsibility).

 

But please, if you think money flows like a river through the halls of Cov Cath, by all means, keep fooling yourself.

Not saying it's an everyday occurence, but surely you agree that it's a tough sell with all the upgrades going on at CCH?

Not saying it's an everyday occurrence, but surely you agree that it's a tough sell with all the upgrades going on at CCH?

 

I understand. Yes, there are a lot of things that have developed and upgraded at Cov Cath "recently".

 

But...I can also tell you that the "new" school (now 6 years old) was an easy 10 years in the works in both planning and fundraising. The athletic programs were well aware that the new building was eventually coming down the pike, so they, along with the boosters, started saving up their own nickels and dimes in order to get the other more current upgrades put on the map.

 

The "new" playing surface (6 years old) for Wooten Stadium was funded independently by the soccer and the football programs. The new dugout for the baseball field was paid for independently by the baseball program (notice that I said dugout and not dugouts - they only had money for one). None of the money for the new Schott Athletic Building came from any "school funding" per se. All of the fundraising was specifically for the athletic building and was relatively independent of the school as an educational entity, which did also include a rather unprecedented donation from the Schott Foundation...thus the name. The new grotto was funded by a group formed primarily by three different Cov Cath families and by the Cov Cath religion department.

 

...these things have all been in the works for a while. Cov Cath can raise money, yes, but it's time consuming and by and large, it's nothing close to immediate.

I was wondering when Covington Catholic would try to build tennis courts.

 

Is Scott the only NKY school with an indoor swimming pool?

PARK HILLS - Covington Catholic High School is purchasing the church next door for $865,000, thanks to a donation of that amount.

 

The all-boys school recently received the gift from four members of the Griffin family, which has strong ties to the school.

 

Generations Church on 1-1/2 acres on the school's south side along Dixie Highway. The closing on the property is expected to happen in the next couple of weeks.

 

"It's always been on our radar screen, but we've just never had the money," said Sue Finke, the school's development director. "We're so excited about this."

 

The donation came from Traci Griffin-Kautzman, who is on the school board, has one son at the school and another who will enroll next year; her brothers, Tony and Toby Griffin, who are 1986 and 1989 graduates, respectively, of Covington Catholic; and their father, Dennis Griffin, who is the chairman of Griffin Industries in Cold Spring.

 

Griffin-Kautzman said the family's initial plan was to purchase the property and hold it until Covington Catholic could afford to buy it.

 

"But my dad said we're not in the business of selling property to schools," Griffin-Kautzman said. That's when they decided to donate it.

 

"We never set out to buy a church, or even donate that much, but we wanted to help the school," she said. "It's a great opportunity."

 

Jeff Haynes, pastor of the church, said the building has been there for 43 years. It recently changed its name to Generations Church from Covington First Church of the Nazarene, and has about 500 members.

 

"It's something we've been preparing for," Haynes said of the sale. "We're growing, but it's difficult to grow because we're landlocked."

 

The church was assessed for the 2010 tax year by Kenton County at roughly $1.3 million. Haynes said his research showed that churches in the area have been selling recently for about two-thirds of their appraised value, which is why they accepted $865,000.

 

He said the church is now set up temporarily in the Indiana Wesleyan University building in Florence. The congregation, he said, is exploring a few sites in Florence to construct a new church.

 

Griffin-Kautzman said the church is more than 20,000 square feet with an undercroft and classrooms. She said in the short-term, it will be used as a reception center for alumni and for all-school Masses, which currently have to be held in the gymnasium.

 

Principal Bob Rowe said that after the closing, the school will discuss long-term possibilities for the property.

 

"We'll do a couple feasibility studies and see what's best for the school," Rowe said. "Having this property will open a lot of doors for us."

 

A formal announcement of the Griffin donation will be made Thursday in the gymnasium at approximately 8:45 a.m. Covington Catholic has roughly 500 students in grades 9-12.

I was wondering when Covington Catholic would try to build tennis courts.

 

Is Scott the only NKY school with an indoor swimming pool?

 

Yes. IMO, it is an absolute embarrassment to Boone County schools that they did not build a pool at Cooper. They are the second largest school system in the state and not one of their 4 large high schools has a pool. Scott is looking into getting a new pool. You also would think the Diocese would have considered putting in a pool at CCH or NDA considering their domination of N. Ky. swimming. NDA has lost only one regional since 1980 and CCH has not lost a swimming regional in 12 years. Although, Beechwood's boys are a serious threat to defeat CCH in this year's regional.

You also would think the Diocese would have considered putting in a pool at CCH or NDA considering their domination of N. Ky. swimming.

 

We have a pretty good golf team too. Have Mr. Carlisle fire up the bulldozers and tell the good folks from St. Agnes to Loschiavo's to gather up their belongings.

 

I hardly qualify as a mover or a shaker in Park Hills (or anywhere else for that matter) but, for what it's worth, I like the mix of home games on Saturday afternoon and road games under the Friday night lights. The best of both worlds.

 

I agree with the posters who suggest if Colonel Nation were of like mind in wanting lights, the funding would be put together.

 

Many thanks to the Griffin family for their generosity. :notworthy:

One thing has changed , Coach Wirth wants to play on Fridays.

Also almost all of the parents and players I have talked to favor playing on Fridays.

There are just to many conflicts on Saturdays to have good attendance.

I know on 3 or 4 home games, there were conflicts with other school events and others parents had to choose between which kids game to attend.

Also all sports teams are supported by the boosters and not tuition.

There are no plans to demolish the church. It is a 30,000 sq foot building and I heard that Mr. Griffin would like to see some alumni development offices in the building. There are also several large classrooms that could be used for the fine arts program.

 

The "new" playing surface (6 years old) for Wooten Stadium was funded independently by the soccer and the football programs. .

 

I'm pretty sure the boosters are paying for the surface - not just the individual teams. Back when the field was being installed the Sports Night started which donated all of its proceeds to the boosters. The boosters used this money ($100k each of the first two years) for the field plus donated some to the building fund.

There are no plans to demolish the church. It is a 30,000 sq foot building and I heard that Mr. Griffin would like to see some alumni development offices in the building. There are also several large classrooms that could be used for the fine arts program.

 

There isn't any current timeline for the school to be demolished, but the word from some of the faculty and many of the boosters is that the building will be going eventually. I attached a satellite photo of the campus. A lot of people don't realize how much property Cov Cath owns beyond the baseball field. They want to develop a lot of that wooded property (which includes filling the lake you can see there in the middle of the trees) and there are plans for a very good sized portion of the property. The long term plan, and I stress long term, is to add a minimum of four tennis courts, an additional practice field (seeing as they have varsity, jv, and freshman soccer, varsity, jv, freshman, and middle school football all competing for game/practice time on the existing fields - not to mention the lacrosse club and ultimate frisbee league), a maintenance building, and possibly a small building for alumni/development.

 

Now all of that stuff isn't exactly happening as of yet, but it isn't just a wish list at this point either. So far from what I've been told, the tennis courts and the practice field are the most definite - to the point that there is already money being saved to put towards them.