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SHREWSBURY, Mass. – Following financial studies, high school and athletics officials have decided that adding freshman baseball and softball programs at Shrewsbury High School would be too costly to introduce or maintain.
Earlier in the school year, School Committee member Steve Levine had suggested finding outside funding to offer freshman baseball and softball teams to help strengthen the programs at Shrewsbury High School.
Athletic Director Jason Costa's calculations estimated that it would cost $14,000 to expand the baseball and softball programs and about $10,000 a year to maintain after that. The estimate included the price of uniforms, transportation, coach salaries, umpires and equipment.
Two of the places Levine indicated for funding sources were the Shrewsbury Little League and the Central One Federal Credit Union.
When Costa approached the Little League, he found that while they wanted to help support the expansion, they could not donate funding because they are a non-profit organization. They did offer to exchange some funds for the baseball and softball coaches offering clinics for the Little Leaguers, but the revenue or frequency of these clinics could not be specified.
Central One did offer to provide $1,000 for four years to help fund the expansion.
"It is clear through our investigation that these two possible funding sources cannot fully support the expansion and cost of the two sports," Principal Todd Bazydlo wrote in a memo to the School Committee.
Bazydlo said that while students would have to pay an athletic fee if the two teams were added, the revenue generated by the student fees cannot be accurately predicted.
Beyond covering the costs, Bazydlo also noted concerns over the additional burden that would be placed on the Parks and Recreation Department to provide maintenance both daily and weekly for the lower fields, which would be used to games and practice.
"The addition of these teams would also create the need to schedule space and time during the very busy transitional spring season," Bazydlo said. "Although this could be accomplished, it would create a challenging situation that would require additional town resources beyond the School Department."
Totally agree with Mike. My son is a freshman and a good BB player (10+ years)! Although I signed him up, I'll be hard pressed to commit to this just to watch my son sit on the bench.