Page 16 THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2022 GREATER BOSTON LEAGUE NOTEBOOK: Can you believe it? High School Fall Sports are here as Preseason Football starts TODAY! Long, hot summer will blend into a busy new school sports year for Everett HS, Malden HS and Revere HS By Steve Freker T he time-honored phrase: "Long, hot summer" comes to mind this week as we come to realize that the high school Fall Season is upon us. We know it has defi nitely been hot out there most of the past 10 weeks of summer, but we might have to scratch the word "long". It seems like yesterday that the teams were finishing doubleplays on the baseball and softball fi elds, scoring goals in lacrosse or spiking volleyballs. How did the calendar fl ip so quickly? But they will be tossing footballs and running sprints starting today as the fall sports season offi cially gets under way. Football kicks it off with two days of extra conditioning under MIAA guidelines. Golf is also allowed to begin its preseason today under newly-adopted MIAA guidelines. All fall sports follow with their offi cial starts on Monday, August 22, as boys’ and girls’ soccer, cross country, field hockey, golf and girls’ volleyball all get under way. That means that the whistles be blowing, the cones will be positioned and the drills will be percolating at Everett Memorial Stadium for the Everett High Crimson Tide, Malden High's Macdonald Stadium and Revere High's Della Russo Stadium today, Today and tomorrow will be conditioning only preseason practices for football, with only helmets allowed to be worn and no contact as teams eye Opening Day, which is just three short weeks away. Football Opening Day just three short weeks away Everett High Head Coach Rob DiLoreto will be embarking on his third year at the helm for Crimson Tide. DiLoreto came aboard for the COVID-shortened season of Spring 2021, then guided Everett to its 25th Greater Boston League Championship in the past 27 seasons and a 10-1 overall record last fall 2021 season, its only blemish a fi rst-round, 25-22 loss to Methuen in the opening round of the Division 1 North playoff s. Everett High football opens its 10-game, 2022 regular season with a highly-anticipated game with Xaverian Bros. from the Catholic Conference on Friday, September 9 at 7:00 p.m. AT Everett Stadium. In addition to Xaverian, Everett has also added BC High to its FOOTBALL | SEE Page 17 School Sports and other extracurricular activities remain best bargain in the entire municipal budget As a new school year nears, the value of these programs which complement academics is clear C all it fiscal efficiency, value-based fi nances or the good, old-fashioned action cliché: “most bang for the buck.” But a truer statement is not often said than this, borrowed from the National Federation of State High School Associations’ (NFHS) “The Case of High School Activities”: High school activity programs – vital programs such as Sports, Music, Speech, Theater and Debate – are one of today’s best bargains. At a cost of only one to three percent (or even less than one percent in many cases) of an overall school’s budget, funding of high school activity programs produces some of the higher value per dollar of all school/municipal expenditures. It is in these sports and other extracurricular programs where young people learn lifelong lessons that complement the academic lessons taught in the classroom. From a cost standpoint, sports and other activity programs are an exceptional bargain when matched against the overall school district’s education budget. Examinations of various school districts’ budget information across the country reveal that activity programs make up very small percentages of school budgets. In the Advocate readership area’s public school districts of Everett, Malden, Revere and Saugus, this is the case, as well, as all four of the districts, for the upcoming 2022-23 school year show between one and two percent of their complete school budgets committed to athletics and other extracurricular activities. That is between approximately $520,000 and $785,000 per school. Check out some of the major cities in the nation. Pre-COVID, in the 2019-20 school year, the city of Chicago’s Public School Board of Education’s budget (the second largest U.S. school district) was $6.56 billion; the activity programs’ portion was $17.5 million, just two-tenths of one percent. In the Los Angeles, Calif., Unifi ed School District (the third largest school district in the national), activity programs received $7.3 million of the overall $7.7 billion budget for 201920, only one-tenth of one percent! In the Miami–Dade, Fla., School District (the fourth largest school district in the United States), its Board of Education had a 2019-20 overall budget of $5.45 billion, while setting aside $17.7 million for sports and all other activity programs, just over three-tenths of one percent. In all of these examples, the budget for school activity programs is less than one percent of the overall district’s budget. Considering the benefits, which are outlined below, at such small proportions of overall school district budgets, school activity programs are one of the most eff ective investments being made in secondary school education programs today. We will go right to the Mission Former Everett High All-Scholastic Jason Maitre parlayed some outstanding athletic ability he honed as a Crimson Tide football All-Scholastic into a Football Scholarship at Boston College. (Courtesy Photo/Everett Football) Statement of the NFHS to reiterate the value and importance of participation in athletic and other extracurricular activities by student-athletes, because we know that they are all endorsed by the districts in our readership area. The NFHS states: –We Believe– Student participation in education-based high school athletics and activities: • Is a privilege. • Enriches the educational experience. • Encourages academic Racing down the fi eld for Malden High Golden Tornado soccer last season (Courtesy Photo/Malden HS girls’ soccer) achievement. • Promotes respect, integrity and sportsmanship. • Prepares for the future in a global community. • Develops leadership and life skills. • Fosters the inclusion of diverse populations. • Promotes healthy lifestyles and safe competition. • Encourages positive school/ community culture. • Should be fun. And it is far from being a budget-buster! In the long run, as it keeps students in school and working towards dreams and goal, it naturally makes the school budget-funded districts more eff ective and more successful. If students are now involved in school-based athletics and activities, keep them involved. If they are not participating at this time, get them involved! Being active in school-based athletics and/or activities can and will change and enhance student-athletes’ lives.
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