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Equality Across the Board

We are writing concerning the allocation of the athletics budget for next school year. We are very upset to hear that once again the North Haven High School girls’ ice hockey team will not be receiving any funding, but there is funding available to add additional sports at the North Haven Middle School level. It really is a disappointment that a girl’s ice hockey team, which was the SCC Division II champion this past season, has existed in our town for almost 10 years, is still considered a club rather than a sport. Most new sports must start as a club, but after two years they are then considered a sport, and are subsequently funded by the Board of Education. However, when this point is brought up, no one seems to have an answer as to why girls’ ice hockey is still a club, and not a sport. The girls deserve the same respect that all the other athletes receive in North Haven.

We do understand that athletics are expensive, but we believe the town needs to look into other methods to fund our high school athletics so that there is equality across the board. One suggestion may be “pay to play,” where every athlete has a small fee to play to help offset the more expensive sports. Another possibility could be for the town to fund the varsity level sports, and have it pay to play for the freshmen and JV teams. It is not fair for our girls to have to pay $1,600 to play, when the boys who also play ice hockey are not charged at all.

The right thing to do is for the Board of Education to recognize our girls as the athletes that they are, and fund them the same as they fund the boys.

Matthew and Jennifer Howlett

North Haven