By Scott Brinton
Seventh-grader Jonathon Hall is performing push-ups on the parched field at Grand Avenue Middle School on a recent Monday. He has come for a tryout for Grand Avenue's first seventh-grade football squad in almost a decade.
With the sun burning down, Jonathon, 12, is sweating profusely. His determination to make the football team shows in his eyes. Jonathon need not worry, however. Don Fleming, coach of the seventh-grade football squad with Pete Brideson, says no one will be cut from the team.
A year ago, Grand Avenue had no seventh-grade football team, nor did it have any other seventh-grade squad, for that matter. The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District eliminated all seventh-grade sports when New York State slammed area districts with enormous aid reductions during the early 1990's, said Saul Lerner, Central's athletic director.
That left the competitive sports programs at Grand and Merrick Avenue Middle Schools without a critical proving and learning ground for athletes -- the seventh grade. Now, the district is reintroducing nine seventh-grade teams to its roster at both middle schools, including: football, and boys and girls soccer in the fall; girls volleyball and boys basketball during the winter I session; girls basketball during winter II; and baseball, softball and lacrosse during the spring.
The rebirth of seventh-grade sports has many in the Central High School District excited. "It's fun. I like that they have seventh-grade sports so I don't have to wait a full year [to play]," says Jonathon, breathing hard between sets of calisthenics.
Bryan Schmerler, 12, agreed with Jonathon. "You get more play time," said Bryan. "With the eighth graders up there, you [didn't] get a lot."
Sean Krieg, Grand Avenue's eighth-grade football coach, said, "It's going to be good because we'll have a lot more seventh graders playing. Now, they'll be more experienced in the eighth grade."
Turnout for the seventh-grade football squad ran higher than expected, with some 75 youngsters attending the team's first meeting earlier this school year, said Coach Krieg. That, Grand's coaches agreed, is plenty to field both a seventh-grade "A" squad and "B" squad for a six-game season. Last year, perhaps 12 of the bigger and stronger seventh graders earned limited playing time on the eighth-grade team.
In all, an estimated 700 students will be eligible to take part in interscholastic sports at Grand and Merrick Avenue Middle Schools in 2000-2001.
Mr. Fleming noted that, with enrollment rising rapidly in the Central District, particularly at Grand Avenue, fielding seventh-grade teams will provide playing time for hundreds of youngsters who would otherwise be shut out from competitive sports and limited to intramural teams. "Enrollment is going up, so it's more opportunity for the kids to play," he said.
Mr. Lerner said that, despite the implementation of the seventh-grade interscholastic sports, intramural teams will remain at both middle schools. He also noted that only certified coaches will direct seventh-grade interscholastic squads.
Referring to the addition of seventh-grade football squads at the middle schools, Mr. Lerner said, "Now we have legitimate teams with legitimate numbers. This is the way it should be done."
At press time, a cost figure for Central's seventh-grade sports program was unavailable.
