Freshman Sports at Central Regional Unlikely to Be Reinstated This Year

Resident Sean Van Liew admitted to Central Regional Board of Education members tht he had an ulterior motive for wanting to reintstate freshman sports.

"I'm absolutely guilty, because my son plays sports," he told the board at the July 22 board meeting. "I don't understand how we can do away with freshman sports."

Van Liew even volunteered to coach freshman baseball and basketball for free.

"I'll do anything," he said. "I'll shake a can at Wal-Mart to pay the umpires."

The board reluctantly cut freshman sports from the district's $33,252,531 budget after voters defeated the $27,489,154 tax levy portion in the April 27 school board elections.

"Our sports teams did take the biggest hit," he said. "Times are changing. I hated to do it. Unfortunately, we had to make difficult decisions."

And it's unlikely the programs will be reinstated, schools Superintendent Triantafillos "Tom" Parlapanides told Van Liew.

Most other area school districts have already cut freshman sports from their budgets, so there would be few teams left to play, Parlapanides said.

"Most everybody eliminated them," Parlapanides said. "You might end up playing Southern (Southern Regional High School) ten times. "If I hit the lottery, it goes back."

Passing next year's budget is crucial, Parlapanides said.

"We have to change the mindset of Central Regional," he said. "We have to pass budgets. You can't keep blaming the senior citizens. Some of our parents don't vote for the budget. It has to be a collective effort. Our kids deserve better."

Parlapanides told Van Liew he would do an informal survey of how many area school districts still have freshman sports.

"Doing away with freshman sports at the school is absolutely crushing," Van Liew said. "I believe we are setting our kids up for failure by not having that feeder program."