Springfield 'wrestles' with reaching for team status

Zach McLaughlin, Springfield Superintendent facilitated a discussion between the school board and Springfield High School’s Wrestling Club who, are requesting approval for funding as an official Varsity team.

www.eagletimes.com

Springfield “wrestles” with reaching for team status | November 21, 2017 By PATRICK ADRIAN padrian@eagletimes.com Zach McLaughlin, Springfield Superintendent facilitated a discussion between the school board and Springfield High School’s Wrestling Club who, are requesting approval for funding as an official Varsity team, a status its coaches have fought to acquire for at least four years. As McLaughlin explained to the board Monday night, Springfield High School has a “Wrestling Club.” The rules, as explained to him by Bob Johnson of the Vermont Principal’s Association, require the wrestlers to be funded like one of the school’s Varsity teams. In order to be scored in team competition, with a budget that includes an employee contract for head coach, transportation, tournament registration fees, etc. “There are many reasons for this,” said McLaughlin, “But one is that they want to have integrity in their leagues. By supporting the team, we guarantee that we are going to field a team, and get them to events. Until we do that, the team isn’t going to recognized as one team.” The students can still wrestle in individual competitions and represent the high school. They can still win tournaments and championships as individuals. There’s also a team competition in which individual scores are tallied into a combined team total. McLaughlin believed the estimated budget for this team was roughly $16,000, but would return with a more defined number in his proposal for the 2019-20 budget. McLaughlin has also asked the Athletic Director Cagney Brigham and Principal Bindy Hathorn to develop a high school policy proposal for considering all future adding or the eliminating of varsity teams. Wrestling head coach Don Beebe, in later conversation, claimed that other clubs have been approved for team funding, since he and partner Floyd Buck began their requests. Beebe says he began coaching youth in wrestling 10 years ago for the town parks and recreation department. As their wrestlers grew up, moving from elementary to middle school and on to high school, Beebe and Buck began working with the schools directly. Beebe says he currently teaches wrestling to 50 youth ranging from grades K through 12. For the Board members, the question isn’t simply about room in the budget, but whether team wrestling is supported by other schools to warrant participating. Board member Mike Griffin requested a list of such schools, which McLaughlin believes can be acquired from the VPA. While Beebe had hoped for approval for this season, the funding decision would only apply to next school year’s budget.