The State of Our Athletic Program

by Joe Cascio

As you drive along the Fellsway during the spring, summer and fall there is a good chance that an athletic event is taking place either at the Knoll, Monk, Morelli, cabbage patch or football field.  Teams take the field, fans jam the stands, Melrose community support is visible for all to see.  The city youth programs field teams as young as 6 years old, who may not be able to hit a pitch or catch a ball, may sit down in the outfield when the game is slow, and have the naive innocence of not even knowing the score of the game.  But they don’t care, for as long as they are wearing that uniform on the field of play with their teammates they are proud to be there.  In their minds they are playing in front of the crowd at Morelli, the Knoll or the football stadium, under the lights with their parents, teachers and neighbors rooting them on.  Anyone driving through Melrose can’t help but see the buzz of activity and feel the excitement.  Everyone would agree that this serves as a positive reflection of life in Melrose as a community. 

Now picture how it would look if the fields and stands were empty, the lights were not lit for Friday night football and soccer games, the baseball diamonds and snack shacks were closed for business.  Unfortunately, this could be reality soon in Melrose as a result of the state of MHS athletics.  Beyond the facade of successful programs, there is a desperate situation that has evolved as a result of fiscal neglect.  Future enrollment in the athletic programs is down, foreshadowing an impending demise.  The sports booster clubs that have been formed recognized this desperate situation and were organized not to merely offer encouragement for the players on the field but to financially subsidize the severely under funded athletic programs at MHS in an effort to foster survival.

The sports booster clubs fund raising efforts that have become the primary mission of these parent organized clubs. They raise thousands of dollars each year to provide the basic necessities as fundamental as uniforms, socks, and balls as well as the annual banquets that serve to publicly recognize the efforts of the athletes.  Without these subsidized funds these sports programs could not effectively participate and in some cases would not be allowed to compete within the Middlesex League.  The level of criticality of these programs not surviving for the 2005 seasons has never been as severe as it is today.

It is the intention of our organization, Athletics is Education, to foster a working partnership with the School Committee and to proactively discuss this compelling issue of athletic funding in a sincere effort to insure that the rich history and success of our athletic program is preserved for future generations.  

Participation Trending Down at an Alarming Rate:

Although the $275 athletic fee has only been in force since the beginning of this school year, it is already becoming clear that the fee is having a significant negative impact on participation.  Some sports have been impacted more quickly and more severely than others; these impacts are clear.  In other cases, the damage may not be as obvious but a close look at trends and numbers show that the entire athletic program is in serious jeopardy.  

In some sports, the drop was clear and dramatic.  Boys winter track declined from 27 to 15, girls winter track declined from 41 to 25, boys cross country from 29 to 22 and ice hockey from 38 to 23.  Boys soccer, girls soccer, wrestling and gymnastics all experienced smaller declines but from numbers that were relatively low to being with, particularly in comparison to other Middlesex League Schools.  Some of the impacts on our teams have been documented; both wrestling and boys track were forced to forfeit numerous events leaving the teams with virtually no chance to win their meets.  It was certainly embarrassing to see Winchester and Burlington , with lower enrollments than Melrose , having 30 or more wrestlers on their squad, while we have 13.

Melrose parents were approached by three Reading parents during a track meet in January.  The parents asked if they were from Melrose and if it were true that we had a $275 athletic fee.  When they were told it was true they were shocked and said “I guess that’s why Melrose has such a small track team”.  These Reading parents actually felt bad for the Melrose parents and even more so for the members of the track team.  They realize that to have a successful track team, like many other sports, you need numbers.

One very clear trend is that athletic participation among freshmen is down dramatically.  

The fee is particularly discouraging for freshmen since many are trying sports for the first time.  Their families are understandably reluctant to commit $275 when they are not sure their child will even like the sport.  In addition, freshmen teams play fewer games and where there are no freshmen teams they are likely to get less playing time than upperclassmen.  Freshmen football dropped from 27 to 19, barely enough to field a freshman team, while field hockey is in a similar situation, having dropped to 12 freshmen from 14 the year before.   If participation continues to decline next year these teams will need to be folded in with the Junior Varsity teams further reducing playing time. 

In other sports, the picture is even worse.  There were three freshmen playing ice hockey this year, two in wrestling, none in boy’s winter track and three in girl’s winter track.  These sports cannot survive for more than two the three years without a major influx of new athletes in the next year.  Ice hockey was able to sustain a junior varsity team only because a number of juniors agreed to participate and a reduced number of games were scheduled on days when the varsity did not play.  Without a viable junior varsity team, the end of this program is not far away. Not only does freshmen participation need to be increased, but freshmen who did not participate this year need to be recruited as sophomores.  The lack of freshmen and sophomores two to three years ago doomed the Chelsea football team.  The team was disbanded during the 2003 season due to low participation and injuries that resulted from the need to play younger players against more experienced players on other  teams.

In ice hockey and wrestling, booster clubs and volunteers have started Middle School programs to boost participation.  These programs have been very successful but this good work will be lost if the $275 fee continues to discourage participation.  We strongly believe that this fee, when combined with poor condition of our facilities, is one of a number of factors driving an increasing number of our 9^th graders to private school.  These are often our outstanding all-round students and athletes – we need to fight for them instead of just throwing up our hands and saying “it happens every year”.

Another disturbing trend was the decline in participation from the Fall to the Winter season.  The School Committee and Administration assumed in their budgeting that the same number  of athletes as last year would participate and all would pay the fee.  In the fall, this assumption pretty much held.  Total participation stayed steady from the year before, although this was caused mainly by a large increase in girl’s swimming.  About 95% of potential fee revenue was collected.  In the winter, it was a different story, with an 18% decline in participation.    If you take out basketball, which can only accommodate a small number of players and requires cuts, the decline was 27%.   The percentage of students participating in winter sports declined from an already low 23% in 2002-03 to only 19% in 2003-04.   In addition, the percentage of potential fee revenue collected dropped to 82%, demonstrating that as the year goes on more families are feeling the financial strain of the high fees.   While it cannot be clearly documented, there is adequate anecdotal evidence that many families do not feel comfortable asking the administration for relief from fees.  Many people do not want to reveal a situation regarding unemployment, illness or other financial hardship to an administration official whom they do not know well.  Sadly there are students not playing for this reason.

Historically kids who do not make some of the more popular “cut” sports of basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball would go on to other sports such as track or wrestling.  While these may not be their primary sports they would go out to stay in shape and for the social interaction.  The $275 fee clearly makes this a more difficult decision and many are opting not to play.  If participation in the so-called minor sports continues to decline, these sports will be eliminated leaving nowhere for these students to go.  Since Melrose is already near the bottom of the Middlesex League in the number of sports offered, and the poor quality of our facilities is under scrutiny one needs to question how much longer would the league allow us to remain.  With no league to play in, even those sports that now are relatively healthy will soon go into decline.