SOS: 'Save our sports' -- Whittier Regional athletes halted at school gate as they try to shovel snow off field
Feb. 24—HAVERHILL — Shovels in hand, they were ready: Between 30 and 40 Whittier Regional High student-athletes from the football, soccer, volleyball and cheerleading teams, ready to shovel off the school's turf field.
They said they had an answer to Superintendent Maureen Lynch's concerns about the cost of clearing snow from the field for practices and games during the Fall 2 MIAA season.
Some of the students wore boots, others snow pants. All were chanting "Save our season" and "Let us play."
At the School Committee's Feb. 10 meeting, Lynch said the reason she and administrators called off the Fall 2 sports season was, in addition to keeping students safe from the coronavirus, the $2,000 cost to clear snow from the field after each storm.
So a group of determined players, parents and other supporters showed up Wednesday after school ready to do just that.
The group was unable to get beyond the front gate of the Amesbury Line Road campus and Haverhill police Officer Ryan Connolly, Whittier's school resource officer, and other security guards, despite the fact that the students planned to shovel snow off the field after school hours.
Senior football captain Mack Fieldhouse said signs reading "Let us play" and "SOS: Save our season" placed around the campus driveway leading up to the guard shack overnight Tuesday were taken down by security personnel ahead of the public display Wednesday afternoon.
"(Football Coach and Athletic Director Kevin) Bradley wants us to play, but the superintendent is the one we're trying to win over," said football player Nick Allen, who lives in Amesbury. "We're hoping to be able to shovel the fields if it would get us a season. For me, I just want my senior (night) game. I want to play at least one game with my friends."
As students stamped their shovels against the pavement, parents in attendance used their cell phones to try to reach Lynch and ask why the season was called off. Nearly a half-dozen calls went either to voicemail or were answered by her secretary, a parent told The Eagle-Tribune.
After The Eagle-Tribune reached out to Lynch, she sent an email that stated:
"Whittier Tech would love to do Fall Sports Season 2. Unfortunately we have only one field that would need to accommodate football, girls and boys soccer. (This was never about shoveling and/or plowing the one turf field.) During a regular fall season we would have 4 fields in use. We are unable to use the other fields because of it being winter. Also all of our practices and games have to be right after school because our students come from 11 cities and towns.
"We are also unable to participate in volleyball because our gym is being used as a lunch room.
"I know this is devastating to our students, but there is hope around the corner and we are confident that if the covid numbers stay the same, we will be able to participate in the spring sports."
Despite the fact that players were unable to get onto school property to shovel off the football field Wednesday, their spirit remains unshaken — and hope for a Fall 2 season undeterred.
"We did the best we could," said Fieldhouse. "We aren't giving up."
