Coming off the bench

Come September, Seaford will no longer have the dubious distinction of being the only Nassau County school district without a full middle school athletics program.

With voters passing the budget on May 19, district officials can now begin planning the 2015-16 middle school sports season. Sports for seventh- and eighth-graders has been limited to one season for the past half-dozen years, as a result of financial pressures that have plagued the district, including state cuts and the loss of rental revenue from the Seaford Avenue School.

The district had been rotating among fall, winter and spring sports for several years. Next year, all four seasons will be offered. Fall includes football, soccer, girls’ field hockey and cheerleading. The first winter session is girls’ volleyball, boys’ basketball and cheerleading, and the second session is wrestling and girls’ basketball. The spring sports are track, lacrosse, baseball and softball.

“I like playing sports,” said seventh-grader Matt Meyer, who plans to play soccer, basketball and lacrosse next year.

Outside of school, Matt plays basketball with CYO and AAU leagues, travel soccer and PAL lacrosse. “I probably would have gave them up if we had school sports,” he said, “but I kept them because we didn’t.”

Seventh-grader Jordan Ragona loves to play softball, but missed out on it this year because only fall sports were offered. Instead she played on a travel team with other girls from Long Island. She’s looking forward to teaming up with her classmates next year and representing Seaford.

“If we don’t have sports,” she said, “it’s hard to find ways to support your school.”

Tom Condon, the district athletics director, said there are a lot of happy students in the middle school now that the return of sports is assured. He estimates that each sports season draws about 200 athletes.

He added that the lack of a full middle school sports program wasn’t just felt there. “It takes its toll here in the high school,” he said. “We’ve struggled without middle school sports, even though the high school program is a strong program. It would have been stronger.”

He also noted the lack of continuity. Because the seasons rotated, students could n’t play the same sport two years in a row, and coaches couldn’t develop any consistency, fielding a team only once every three years.

Christopher Surace, a seventh-grader, played his favorite sport — football — this year, and now can sign up again next year. He also plans to try out for the baseball season next spring, and supplemented the lack of a team this year by playing for the Seaford Little League.

For some middle school athletes, a full sports offering means the ability to play on several teams and stay active year-round. For others, it means being able to play the same sport in seventh and eighth grades.

James Padavan, who will be in eighth-grade next year, played soccer this year, but he would also like to add basketball and either lacrosse or track to his middle school resumé.

“I like to be playing sports all the time, all year-round,” he said. “It’s important to represent our community and our school.”

Jamie McSorley, a seventh-grader, hopes to play basketball and volleyball next year. She didn’t have the chance to do either of those sports this year in school, so she played for outside leagues.

Jamie said she wants to stay active and improve her skills as she plans to play sports in high school.

Condon said he would have to assess all the equipment and uniform needs for each sport. The bulk of the costs of the middle school athletic program is transportation and coaching stipends. The field trips and interscholastic portion of next year’s budget is rising by about $19,000 to account for the additional bus service that will be required.

Parents and coaches, as well, will no doubt welcome middle school sports back with open arms. “It’s going to have a very positive impact on the athletic program,” Condon said.

Sixth-grader Patrick Adorno said he is happy he will get to experience a full middle school sports program for the next two years, and plans to do both a fall and spring sport. His older siblings played for both the middle school and high school, and next year he will get to put on the green and white.

“I’m really excited to be a Viking now,” he said, “like they were.”