Schools

Valley Stream high school bowling returns

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Competitive bowling is back in the Valley Stream Central High School District after the board approved funds for a district-wide team on Oct. 14.

Scott Stueber, the district’s coordinator of physical education and athletics, said he was glad Valley Stream’s bowling team is returning after two years of the funding not being available. “I am really excited that boys and girls in our district will once again have the chance to represent our schools as part of a bowling team. We have a lot of talented bowlers here in Valley Stream, and I’m happy to see them have the chance to compete.”

The district had an individual team for each of its three high schools, but those were disbanded two years ago due to budget constraints, according to Superintendent Bill Heidenreich.

“Two years ago we had a big budget crunch and we really had to make some tough calls,” Heidenreich said. “Those decisions affected the whole district. We had to disband a number of extracurricular programs and we even laid off 15 employees in the process. None of that was done lightly.”

Heidenreich said the district’s six teams were too great a cost to keep going as the budget was evaluated for areas to cut. “We had a boys and girls bowling team at each of our three schools, but we really could not sustain that given our budget constraints. It was an expensive sport for our district, because we have no in-house bowling lane, so our teams practice at Rockville Centre Lanes, which means we have to pay for buses to travel each day. The cost was very high in terms of dollars per team member.”

Students and parents soon mounted an effort to get their teams back. “After the teams were cut, we obviously had disappointed some people in our district, and they came to some of our district’s board meetings and told the board they’d like to see a team again,” Stueber said.

Angela Lucente and her husband, Joseph, attended every board meeting, said Angela, whose daughter Maria was a member of North High School’s team.

“I did everything I could,” Lucente said. “I wrote letters, I gave speeches, anything I could to show to the board how important this was. These kids just want to bowl for their school, and it’s a healthy, lifelong sport that anyone can do. It’s a great activity.”

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