Giant McDonald's football award to stay in LHS case, include names of past recipients

Burger company will also sponsor sportsmanship awards for each varsity sport

The McDonald's corporation will continue to sponsor an annual trophy for the student-athlete chosen as the most valuable player on the Laconia High School football team, it was announced last night by Athletic Director Jim Chase. But the large trophy that school administrators said had become a divisive symbol of football's prominence in the athletic hierarchy will change form and the restaurant company will also begin to sponsor a special sportsmanship award that will be presented annually to a member of each and every varsity athletic team at the school.

Chase, LHS Principal Jon Freeman and regional McDonald's manager Larry Johnston — a city resident and ardent LHS sports fan — appeared together before the School Board to outline a meeting of the minds that ended a two-month-long standoff that began when Chase and Freeman asked the board to support their recommendation to end the long McDonald's/LHS football relationship in the name of gender and sports equity. The board refused, but encouraged the men to get together and see if they could not find a way to broaden the hamburger company's relationship with the school beyond football.

Chase said that McDonald's would sponsor a new, large football MVP trophy that would stay at the school and carry the names of all winners, dating back to the late 1970s. From now on, the individual winner will receive a smaller — "standard" size — trophy they may keep.

"I couldn't be happier with the way things worked out," Johnston said of the new program. He noted that every sport at the school but football has a permanent trophy on display with the names of past outstanding players and football should not be the exception. He referred to the "wonderful names of great student athletes" that grace all the trophies.

Freeman said the three men "looked for common ground . . . areas where we could agree" and he enthusiastically endorsed the result.

"We couldn't be happier that you're happy," board member Marge Kerns responded. And colleague Mike Seymour added that he really liked the fact the football, like all the other sports, would now have a "perpetual" outstanding player award that would stay in the school trophy case.

Johnston told the board that, from his perspective, Freeman "broke the ice" by telling him personally that the school appreciates everything that McDonald's has done in support of LHS students over the years and acknowledged how much the sport of football has meant to students, past and present. "He put us at ease," Johnston said.

Chase also announced two other McDonald's related initiatives:

— McDonald's suggested fundraising activities for school sports could be enhanced with the introduction of special nights at the local restaurant where 20-percent of all the money spent on meals would be donated back to a specific fund.

— McDonald's will attempt to use both it commercial support and its "influence" to try and get LHS sports back on local radio.

The athletic director said many residents recall fondly "the old days" when it was possible to pick up live broadcasts of all football and some basketball games. Johnston acknowledged that Lakes Region Public Access television has filled the gap to some extent but those games are video taped for later showing.

On Feb. 20, Johnston told the board that providing the McDonald's football MVP award started 30 years ago as a gentlemen's agreement between him and former coach and athletic director Jim Fitzgerald.

At that meeting, Freeman advised that the traditional corporate sponsorship of the very tall football award was keeping that sport, in the eyes of other student athletes, "on a pedestal" and causing resentment.

Several weeks later, the board tabled the whole matter in the obvious hope that Chase and Freeman would be able to work something out with Johnston and McDonald's.

Expressing the sentiment of most board members, Joe Cormier said, "I think we have made it very clear that we support McDonald's (trophy) sponsorship . . . but the building principal has to have some say in what that (whole trophy policy) looks like."

"I understand where the principal in coming from in terms of equity," Chairman Chris Guilmett added, "but I don't think we should be saying to any corporation that we don't want your support."

Freeman and Chase tried to put an end to the McDonald's MVP award after the end of the 2005 football season but were quietly overruled — off the record — by the School Board. After the 2006 season, the school purchased it own trophy for the MVP but — at the last minute — Johnston was again allowed to make the presentation at the annual Friends of Football banquet.

NOTES: Assistant Superintendent Terri Forsten told the board that thus far about a dozen people have applied for the job of principal at Elm Street Elementary School and another eight had expressed interest in the Laconia High School principal job. "About all we are talking about (around the office) is principal search," she said. "And we do have excitement about some of the candidates." Forsten said she and other local administrators are actively promoting and selling the jobs to people they know. "That's the best way," she said. "word of mouth". Elm Street Principal Marie Samaha and LHS Principal Jon Freeman are both retiring at the end of the school year. . . . . . Business Manager Ed Emund announced that Woodland Heights 5th-grader Justine Brown is the new city school chess champion, as she recently defeated opponents at the elementary, middle and high school levels.