Trenton High School athletics are back.
After shutting down fall sports several weeks ago, interim Superintendent Ronald Lee and the Board Education reversed the earlier decision to cancel fall sports in light of coronavirus concerns and announced they would go on as scheduled in a special meeting on Friday afternoon.
Members of the community, including several athletes, spoke at the meeting on the importance of sports in their lives and the opportunities they provide particularly with school being held remotely at least through the end of the calendar year.
Athletic director Shannon Grady said Lee wanted to hear from the student-athletes on the Zoom call and was moved at the conclusion to reverse course and re-instate athletics. Grady said she had been lobbying Lee to re-consider the earlier decision and there had been a movement in the community to let their voice be heard.
Official practices will begin for Trenton teams on Sept. 14 – the designated date for all sports teams throughout the state. Competition will start the week of Sept. 28.
“I think he got to a point where he didn’t want to see me calling again,” said Grady with a laugh. “There were a lot of people from the community on the call. I think (Lee) was really moved by the passion and what they would like to do. They were very articulate when they spoke. We were fighting for the programs and the kids. Obviously the safety of everyone comes first. With what the kids are going through, we just have to stay on them and make sure they are complying with the guidelines, social distancing when we’re supposed to, sanitizing a lot.
“If we don’t, it will get shut down, but they’ll do what they have to do to comply and make it work. It’s important for the kids to get out there and do something. With school starting remotely, they’re stuck at home all day in front of the computer.”
Grady said over the last few weeks the district has been having on-going discussions with the county board of health and other medical professionals. She has been in constant contact with her peers in the Colonial Valley Conference, many who have started summer workouts.
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When he received the e-mail two Sundays ago fall sports wouldn’t occur, boys soccer coach Joe Fink didn’t think there was a chance of a reversal. But he knew there was momentumt in the last few weeks to appeal to the board of education and he was hopeful.
“I knew they were having some meetings, and the superintendent had a change of heart,” said Fink. “I sent out a blast to the team through google classroom (after the decision Friday) and they were pretty pumped up.
“For a lot of our kids, they love the game of soccer and that’s their only sport. There’s such a rich tradition of soccer in Trenton going back to the ’60s. Football is huge in Trenton too. We’re very excited to get out there on the 14th.”
Gandy and Fink admitted there would be hurdles running an athletic program without student-athletes already being in school buildings, but they won’t be alone among schools beginning remotely and they’ll make it work.
“It’s going to be a challenge, but I think they want it bad enough and they want to be out there with their friends,” said Grady. “They’re getting a chance to do what they want to do and what they need to do.”
Trenton’s return means the West Jersey Football League will only be missing Princeton and West Windsor-Plainsboro. West Jersey Football League president Derryk Sellers eagerly welcomed Trenton back and said it wouldn’t be a problem getting them a schedule on short notice.
“They made the decision to go back and I’m not worried about the why, just that’s happening,” said Sellers. “They’re back, and that’s what’s important. We can change their schedule back, no problem. It’s real easy to fix at this point.”
Bill Evans can be reached at bevans@njadvancemedia.com. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
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