To say that Santa Fe Public Schools has been mismanaged is like saying the Titanic should have seen that iceberg coming. It's apparent to everyone.
There are no easy answers for SFPS when facing a huge budget crunch. But if there is a way to preserve a component of middle school athletics - and activities, for that matter - please do it. While coaches and administrators are wringing their hands over the prospect of seeing middle school programs altered (perhaps forever?), let's hope they do not lose sight that athletics are not gone.
Just in a different format. Plenty of question exists about how a middle school intramural system (How would it be structured? Where would coaches and officials come from, especially if it's done on a volunteer basis? How would the kids - and it's always about the kids, right? - get to those events? How would the cost of maintaining fields and courts and having them available be paid?) But the most important part is that it's still there.
The alternative can be viewed just 55 miles to the south in Albuquerque, where middle school sports' demise came in 1981. Since then, only middle school basketball has been funded by Albuquerque Public Schools, but district athletic director Ken Barreras has seen its effect.
There is no school spirit or a connection between the feeder middle schools and their high school parents.
Students struggle to maintain interest in school, especially those who lack the ability to pay to play in the Young American Football League, or AAU basketball, or club soccer, volleyball, softball and baseball.
Truancy rates have risen.
The athletes who do participate often lack fundamental skills and spend the first couple of years trying to catch up.
That could be the future of Santa Fe Public Schools if it's not careful.
If it's going to do intramurals, it has to be done right.
Or else ...
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