When voters in the South-Western City Schools district rejected a levy for the third time in August and forced the cancellation of extra-curricular activities, including sports, Westland High School senior Roy Ray considered transferring to another school.

However, Ray decided to remain at Westland in hopes a similar levy would pass.

Ray's hopes were answered Tuesday as voters narrowly approved a 7.4-mill levy, resulting in the reinstatement of scholastic sports at Central Crossing, Franklin Heights, Grove City and Westland.

"At first I wanted to go, but I just decided I just had one more year and I was just hoping and praying that the levy was going to pass, so I decided to stay," Ray said. "I wanted to stick it out."

The return of sports will come with a price for participants, as each high school athlete must pay $150 per sport, with a cap of $500 per family.

Athletes returned to the gyms Wednesday, including the Grove City and Westland girls basketball teams, which began tryouts.

At Grove City, coach Greg Waits' boys basketball team was to begin tryouts Friday, as it looks to defend its Division I district title.

"It was a downer for the whole district," Waits said. "I never gave up hope. I'm an optimist, and I believe in people. I knew we were going to get this thing taken care of eventually."

Westland boys basketball coach Todd Parker was hoping he could begin tryouts Friday.

"I feel that all extra-curricular activities help young people build characteristics that make them leaders and help them work well with their peers," Parker said. "The reinstatement of these in our district not only helps students build their college resumes, but injects a new energy into our schools."

The Cougars, however, are without their top player from last year. Anthony Jackson opted to transfer to Gahanna when the levy was rejected in August.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced Wednesday that students who transferred to another school because of the levy failure can return to their original school without penalty, provided they already haven't played in a winter or spring sport contest at their new school.

Ray should be a big part of the basketball team. He missed his senior football season, but filled that void by playing for the Columbus Crusaders football team -- a program which offers football for students who are home-schooled or don't have a team at their school.

The Central Crossing wrestling program lost several athletes. Coach Chance Van Gundy also left to take over the Ready program, but remains a supporter of SWCS athletics.

"I'm excited for them," Van Gundy said. "I may not coach in the district anymore, but I still teach and I live in the community. It affects me directly. I'm a yes voter. I'm not going to be one of those guys who leaves and coaches at another high school and still not vote for the levy. I'm still behind it 100 percent. I was happy to hear the news."

The four schools also will resume play in the OCC, according to commissioner Dave Cecutti.

"We want to protect them as much as possible," Cecutti said of the SWCS. "I admire both our athletic directors and our principals for holding steady. It would have been very easy for our group just to say, 'We have to move forward, forget about them,' but we made a strong statement early on that we want to protect them and give them all the support that we can to get them through this situation and needless to say it paid off."

Burke, who served as a substitute teacher during the fall, is happy to return to his regular position.

"I always believed if you have the right cause -- and in this case it's the kids -- and you're doing the right things, sooner or later good things happen," he said. "I understand both sides of it. I understand the economy. I know people are hurting. I know people are suffering. I also know that the economy will come back and we have to do everything we can to provide some kind of normalcy for these kids and this community because the longer this would go on the tougher it would be for people to even consider coming back and moving into South-Western City Schools. Businesses would begin to close and home sales would not happen."