Innovative OnTECH Charter HS cements new home for Bishop Grimes athletics
After closing in June 2025, Bishop Grimes High School shifted some of its students and teams to Innovative OnTECH Charter High School. Courtesy of Jason Wait
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When Bishop Grimes Junior-Senior High School closed in June, it left roughly 300 students, teachers and coaches without a school. Coach Jason Wait was one of them.
Wait, who coached the Cobras football team for a decade, was left needing to find a new squad to rebuild. OnTECH Charter High School gave him that opportunity.
Students from OnTECH had already been playing with Wait’s Bishop Grimes squad for the past two years. When Grimes closed, Wait reached out to OnTECH in hopes of expanding its partnership to find a permanent home for him and his team.
OnTECH has been just that. The eight-year-old Syracuse-based charter school aims to provide a new home for displaced students and athletes. With the addition of Wait and former Bishop Grimes Athletic Director Bob McKenney, OnTECH’s athletic programs hope to foster community and give students a sense of belonging.
Bishop Grimes’ football team won multiple SEC III 8-Man football division titles and a sectional title under Wait. He was twice honored as the division’s Coach of the Year.
After finding out his players would be moving to OnTECH, Wait helped condition both the OnTECH athletes and Grimes transfers and helped renovate its locker room. It facilitated a sense of brotherhood within the team.
“It was an easy transition,” Wait said. “As far as coaching, the merge (has) been seamless.”
Wait prioritizes his players’ health and personal needs just as much as their athletic progression. Israel Cage-El, who was at OnTECH prior to the merger, describes Wait as a great coach and person.
“If you know how to be coachable and sit and learn, he’s a great coach,” Bishop Grimes transfer Christopher Groves Jr. said. “He’ll help you through your personal problems, he’ll help you with getting better at football.”
Currently in his 20th season coaching, Wait has taught in the Syracuse city school district for 15 years. Wait teaches at Henninger High School and is now adding English classes at OnTECH.
With the expertise of Wait, as well as the other long-time staff he brought with him — Mickey Heffron, Jamar Alexander and Ryan Royal — the team believes it can make it far if they put in the work.
“I got high expectations for us,” Cage-El said. “(I think we can) make it back to the playoffs.”
McKenney believes that Wait will “build an eight-man program that will be very good at OnTECH.” The football program is just one part of OnTECH’s promise.
OnTECH Charter High School is hoping to build a strong 8-man football program under former Bishop Grimes head coach Jason Wait. Courtesy of Ellen Eagen
Ellen Eagen, OnTECH’s founder, felt Syracuse needed a new, innovative high school, leading to the creation of OnTECH. Eagen didn’t want to replicate other schools in the area, but rather complement the schools already there.
OnTECH is designed to serve students who need more individualized attention, non-traditional learning methods or who feel disengaged in the more traditional schooling environment. Through an emphasis on hands-on learning, material that connects to current events, smaller class sizes and a more student-driven curriculum, OnTECH achieved just that.
Eagen focuses part of OnTECH’s values around Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs — a pyramid detailing the level of needs that must be met in order for someone to reach their full potential. Eagen said many students in the community don’t have the essential needs — such as clothing, food and housing — so OnTECH aims to ensure its students have those essentials.
“You can’t dream, you can’t aspire to do great things, if you’re just struggling and worrying about psychological needs, or where your next meal’s going to come from,” Eagen said.
Eagen also focuses on the 16 Habits of Mind, a set of actions that aim to provide a framework to strengthen one’s mindset.
OnTECH attempts to provide a family-like environment. Eagen said that — no matter a student’s educational background or reading level — they’ll succeed at OnTECH if they’re willing to accept help from the community.
“They give a lot of support to the at-risk kids,” McKenney says, “They have programs set up… different than you’ll see in (most) public schools.”
One of these programs includes an option for students who need more time to complete high school in five or six years, McKenney said.
OnTECH also prioritizes setting students up for the future. Through dual enrollment at Onondaga Community College (OCC), students knock out college credits and experience a university-esque atmosphere while still in high school.
Through career and trade fairs at the school, taking students on college tours, to job sites and conducting mock interviews, OnTECH exposes students to life after graduation. OnTECH also prepares students for alternative programs, such as two and four-year programs or certifications.
OnTECH hopes its off-the-field guidance will result in success on the field. Wait and McKenney hope OnTECH will have a “competitive athletic program in the next few years,” McKenney said.
Empowered by a school that values personal achievements of all its students, Wait and his team are set up for success — both on the field and off it.
