The Newburyport Youth Soccer Association is making a $5,000 donation this Friday night to the Newburyport athletic department to fund the boys’ and girls’ freshmen soccer teams this season. The Newburyport School Committee voted to cut the freshmen programs prior to last season.
A few points on this:
1. The Newburyport girls team won a Division 3 state championship last season, which happened to be the year the freshmen team was cut.
2. This seems to be part of a larger trend in which the School Committee is decreasing its funding for high school athletics, and parents and athletes are shouldering more of the responsibility.
Do you know of other cuts?
How are you dealing with the increased costs of athletics?
Do you think it will impact the success of particular programs in Newburyport?
Let us know. I’ll have a column tomorrow.
