By Dakota Antelman, Managing Editor
HUDSON – New sports programs are a hit at Quinn Middle School.
Driven, in part, by the popularity of a previous intramural sports program, the school has secured funding to run soccer, basketball and running programs in this year’s fall, winter and spring seasons respectively.
As that funding will only sustain these programs through this 2021-2022 school year, though, administrators are hoping to secure a more stable future.
“The hope is that we’ll be able to demonstrate that there is enough interest and that it’s
benefiting our students so that the town and the district will support it going forward,” Principal Jeff Gaglione said in a recent interview.
‘We’re very excited’
The soccer team has been practicing throughout the month of October, running co-ed practices ahead of games which Gaglione said he and Hudson High School Athletic Director Jessica Winders were in the process of scheduling as of Oct. 7.
That squad is coached by math teacher Veronica Cartier and Paulina Brunelle, a coach brought in by the district to help facilitate this program.
Quinn, meanwhile, is already gearing up for its winter basketball season, which, Gaglione
anticipates, will see Hudson’s team play a full schedule of home and away games. There will be a boys and a girls team within that basketball program, Gaglione said.
The spring season will then see a co-ed running team participate in its own slate of practices and competitions.
“We felt that those three sports were accessible to a lot of students,” Gaglione said of the
planning process for all this. “We’re very excited.”
Programs part of larger expansion of extra-curricular
The creation of these programs is part of a larger effort to expand extra-curricular activities at Quinn.
Gaglione is now in his third year at Quinn and said he’s personally seen those offerings grow since the fall of 2019.
There were nine such programs that year, he said. Now, there are over 20.
“I’m a big fan of getting students to buy into school,” Gaglione said. “If it’s something that we offer outside the classroom that will make them excited to be here and motivate students to be in school, I’m all for it.”
Popular clubs include a game club, a gay straight alliance and an anime club, Gaglione said.
Quinn further added intramural sports two years ago, quickly seeing a flood of student
participation.
School seeks long-term funding for sports
Gaglione said Quinn’s predecessor, JFK Middle School, ran sports programs before those were eventually shut down.
These programs, meanwhile, are being paid for with a $10,000 grant, covering coaching, referee fees, transportation and equipment among other things.
Gaglione said he hopes to also get uniforms paid for through the grant.
As students have already flocked to the field, these programs will likely need district funding to continue into subsequent school years.
Regardless, Gaglione said the soccer team has already accomplished some of its key goals.
“Some students that wouldn’t normally stay after school to participate in things are
participating,” he said.
