For Pedro Rosado, president of the Hamden Youth Soccer Association, the news that middle school sports were to be cut from the town’s budget was devastating. As a passionate supporter of youth sports and its ever-growing community, he would have never imagined it would be on the chopping block this summer.
Rosado is not just involved with the town’s soccer programs through his position; he is also a parent. His daughter plays on the Hamden Middle School soccer team, and Rosado saw firsthand how upsetting the budget cut was to its players.
“A lot of these girls I’ve seen come up through playing youth town sports. So this year when the proposed budget came out that they were going to do away with youth sports, it really affected a lot of the town,” Rosado said. “You could just tell how it affected all the kids that were getting ready to go into middle school.”
Receiving $2.75 million less than requested, in June of 2024 Hamden Public Schools chose to cut organized sports at Hamden middle schools. Additionally, Hamden planned to cut nearly 30 full and part-time staff positions for the upcoming academic year.
That is, until Quinnipiac University stepped in, donating $48,000 to fund middle school sports this season.
The donation saved sports at Hamden Middle Schools, providing students with an outlet to exercise and make friends. It also strengthened Quinnipiac’s close relationship with the town of Hamden.
“The well-being of the entire community of Hamden is a vital priority for Quinnipiac University,” Quinnipiac University President Judy D. Olian said in a statement. “We are delighted and gratified to be able to support middle school sports — investing in the future success and healthy development of the youth of Hamden.”
Hamden Public Schools Director of Athletics Tom Dyer talked about what it was like finding out his sports were saved.
“I was ecstatic because any time you’re giving kids an opportunity to do something positive like playing athletics, I think, is really good for their development,” Dyer said. “And when I say development, I’m not talking about development as an athlete, while that’s important. But we’re talking about their development as a person and learning to be young adults. Sports has a way of helping teach some things that you can’t always get to in the classroom.”
For children, sports are so much more than just an extracurricular. They can help bring together lifelong friends and teach kids the importance of group work and communication.
“Middle school is the age where kids really are finding their niche a little bit about whether they’re gonna love a sport or gonna quit a sport? What kind of pathways you’re going to go into?” Dyer said. “So having middle school sports allows kids [the] opportunity to really learn about themselves, learn about playing team sports and being part of something.”
Although the donation from Quinnipiac was able to save middle school sports, it wasn’t able to save other departments. There are still staff members from every department losing their jobs, and budgets continue to diminish in size.
“We’re fortunate to get middle school athletics saved, but there’s still quite a big cut out of our education budget that really affects our school system,” Dyer said.
The continuation of middle school sports had just as much of a reaction within the community as the initial budget cut. With the season off to a good start, Rosado expressed the town could not be more ecstatic to have youth sports again.
“All of them were looking forward to having and sharing that experience of, ‘Hey, I’m representing my school, not just my town,’” Rosado explained. “The fact that it got turned back on and we were able to kick it off for this season was monumental for us.”
As Rosado reflected on the importance of middle school sports, he recognized the impact they hold on students’ ability to work as a team and overcome adversity. To his daughter and her teammates, soccer is more than just wins and losses.
“It’s just the camaraderie, the team building, the friendships these girls build up.That friendship all started on the field,” he said. “Whether they’re playing outside of school or in school, just being able to be on the field and share that dynamic with each other is what drives these girls.”