SAUGUS — At a meeting at Belmonte Upper Elementary School on Monday afternoon, the athletic subcommittee reflected on the fall season and discussed a possible change to student-athlete eligibility requirements.
Saugus High School Athletic Director Terri Pillsbury said that, overall, they had a decent fall season.
Girls soccer made it to the state tournament; boys soccer, with 55 participants, had a “huge growth” from the previous year, which barely saw enough players to fill two teams; the town had multiple All Conference and All Star players; and football struggled again. One of the difficulties across most teams, Pillsbury said, was low roster numbers.
“It continues to be a repetitive theme amongst almost all of our teams,” Pillsbury said. “Roster numbers are a huge part of how successful a team can be.”
One reason for low roster numbers are the eligibility requirements, which the subcommittee has discussed changing in the past.
“We do lose a lot to grades, and that’s something that I’m looking to discuss here – about changing the standards,” Pillsbury said. “While I’m all about holding our kids to a high standard, our standards are different than the MIAA’s [Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s].”
Chairman of the Subcommittee, John Hatch, asked what the district can do to help the kids who can’t play because of this eligibility requirement, saying that sports “saves some kids.”
“When we don’t give them that outlet, they have nothing else,” Hatch said.
This past fall season, Pillsbury said football lost six athletes because of grades.
“Our standards are higher than the current MIAA’s,” said School Committee Chairman Vincent Serino.
The passing standard for Saugus High School students is a 65, while the MIAA’s passing standard is 60. The MIAA allows two failures, with the third triggering ineligibility, while Saugus only allows one failure, with the second resulting in ineligibility.
“We’ve got a higher standard for our passing threshold,” said Pillsbury. “Personally, I think we stay at 65 and we allow the second F… We meet the MIAA in the middle. I don’t think that dropping the standard to 60 is OK.”
Superintendent Erin McMahon said they should think carefully about “lowering the bar.”
“I was a college athlete, I went to school for soccer … I just really want us to think about the message that we’re sending kids,” McMahon said. “I agree that sports help kids stay in school and that’s one of the reasons some kids come to school.”
Pillsbury said that if students aren’t eligible to participate in a fall sport because of last year’s grades, they are still allowed to practice with the team, so that when they do get their grades up, they will be ready to go right into game participation.
“We’re doing that with a couple of players right now for the winter season,” Pillsbury said.
These eligibility requirements aren’t just for participation in sports, but apply to all extracurricular activities.
Not being able to participate in extracurricular activities because of grades can come about in two ways: a student starts the season ineligible from previous grades, or becomes ineligible during the season when grades close for the quarter.
“They’re students before they’re athletes, so it’s most important to support them there,” Pillsbury said.
“I think athletics helps them with their education,” Serino said.
The Principal of Saugus Middle-High School, Brendon Sullivan, said most of the other schools in the Northeast Conference are following the MIAA standards.
“I think our student-athletes have a higher bar than other schools,” Sullivan said. “It seems pretty standard that schools are following MIAA recommendations so that’s where I think we would fall in.”
The subcommittee voted unanimously to have two volunteers from the committee look at the town’s eligibility policy and bring their recommendations on changing it to the School Committee. Hatch and Sullivan will serve as the two volunteers.
