Pontiac School District makes Insurance Payment so football team can play this season

Written Tuesday August 13th, at 8:40 PM

There will be football in Pontiac this fall.

The Pontiac School District made a $41,000 insurance payment Tuesday morning following a TV Report that insured its football team to practice at Wisner Stadium.

The Phoenix could not practice on Monday because of the insurance issue with the Pontiac School District and was told not to practice because they were not insured incase of injuries on the field. Pontiac Coach, Damion Redmond told his players the bad news on Monday.

Monday was the first official day that high school teams around the state can practice but won't put the pads on until Thursday.

The Pontiac School District was declared under a financial emergency by Governor Rick Snyder last week has a $37.7 million dollar budget deficit and under Public Act 436 (the state's emergency manager law) it's school board has four options they can choose from, either a consent agreement, meditation, Chapter Nine Bankruptcy, or an Emergency Manager.

Redmond then got the good news Tuesday afternoon, when he heard from district officials that the $41,000 insurance payment was paid and his kids could practice at Wisner Stadium.

Pontiac interim superintendent Kelley Williams said that there might not be a lot of sports to play this season and that some sports programs in the High School and Middle School levels maybe cut because of budget issues. There were rumors that there would be no sports in Pontiac this upcoming school year but that is not the case at all.

If Pontiac were not to had football this season than Southfield-Lathrup, Clarkston, Lake Orion, Troy, Troy Athens, Stoney Creek, and West Bloomfield were to had find games to replace Pontiac on the schedule but now they won’t have to do that now.

Now with the insurance issues taken care of, the Phoenix football team can focus on their first game of the season when they will travel to Lathrup Village and take on former Pontiac Northern coach Keith Stephens and the Southfield-Lathrup Chargers. The schedule is brutal for Pontiac with games against Clarkston (at home), Lake Orion, and Stoney Creek (both on the road) this season.