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Source: Phila. Electric suspending all sports in 2015-16

09/02/2015, 5:15pm EDT
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Philadelphia Electric & Technical Charter will suspend all sports for the 2015-16 academic school year, a source close to the situation told CoBL on Wednesday.

School athletic director Chris Clayton confirmed the news, but declined to otherwise comment.

The Center City charter school, located at 1420 Chestnut Street, was founded in 2002 by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Union 98.

About 600 students attend PE&T, who admits students from around the city based on a lottery selection process. While the curriculum is that of a standard high school, according to the school's website, seniors take a co-op capstone that places them in any one of "a variety of technical and administrative career fields."

According to the source, the decision by the charter school's Board of Trustees to eliminate athletics for this school year was motivated by financial reasons.

Of course, with school set to begin in just a week, the decision's timing is not great for the school's student athletes, including a basketball team that had been fairly successful of late.

Under the direction of head coach James Lewis, Phila. Electric played in the top division of the Philadelphia Public League. Last season, the Chargers went 9-14 overall, with a 2-8 record in league play; the year before, however, they won 19 games and made it to the PIAA Class AAA state semifinals.

The program had turned out a number of Division I prospects, including Jai Williams, who graduated from PE&T in 2013, and Hakeem Baxter, who helped UAB to an NCAA Tournament appearance last year; Devante Chance was all-PSAC at Indiana (Pa.) the last few years as well.

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(UPDATE, 6:30 PM) Public League commissioner Ben Dubin, who had not yet independently confirmed the news when he spoke with CoBL, was planning on calling the school on Thursday to hear it for himself.

"I'm kind of shocked," he said.

Dubin said that the Pub's 'A' Division was set to expand this year from six to seven teams, adding George Washington, so the loss of PE&T means that it will drop back to the six teams it's been for the last two seasons.

The remaining schools in the 'A' Division are Math, Civics & Sciences Charter, Del-Val Charter, Constitution HS, Imhotep Charter and Martin Luther King HS.

CoBL will have more on this story as it becomes available

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