Girls Lacrosse and Softball Find out Their Fate at Tonight's School Board Meeting

Supporters of middle school girls lacrosse and the newly established junior high girls softball will be out in force to find out the fate of their programs at tonight's Southern Lehigh School Board meeting.

At the Feb. 14 school board meeting, turned out to express strong opinions about funds that were reallocated to a new junior high softball program. The funds, about $4,000, were shifted to the new program from the JV softball program, which had no participants with the hope of attracting players to the sport. "Our girls softball team has been quite viable for 50 years," said board member Bill Miracle. "We need to maintain that viability with feeder programs [for the high school team]."

But lacrosse supporters had a different view. "I've been involved with middle school lacrosse for eight years," said lacrosse coach Ed Risi. "I've asked the board to fund it for seven. All I get told is that there's no money in the budget. And then I get told that softball is getting [approved], and I don't know why we’re being ignored."

Board president Mike Eddinger made it clear that funding lacrosse and shifting funding from JV softball to junior high softball were two different issues. "We are trying to get [softball] a larger audience by shifting it toward the middle school. One has nothing to do with the other."

However, after hearing lacrosse supporters speak, some board members felt more information was needed before they could shift the money to a softball program. "I only recall hearing a blurb about this [at a prior meeting]," said board member Jeff Dimmig. "We can't vote for softball [to get funds] tonight. We have to find the best use for our limited resources."

Others agreed. "If we're going to consider [lacrosse funding] in isolation [from softball funding], that's fine," said board member (and admitted lacrosse fan) Thomas McLoughlin. "But when we look at resources, we need to have conversations about reallocating resources toward what sport is giving us the greatest traction."

In a close 4-3 vote, the board removed allocation of funds for softball from the agenda for Feb. 14. At the meeting tonight, both athletic director Don Harakal and superintendent Joe Liberati will be in attendance (both were unable to attend the Feb. 14 meeting) to answer questions about both softball and lacrosse for the board. And with spring training around the corner, the decision couldn't come soon enough.

"I'm going to say there are approximately 23 individuals who have expressed interest in junior high softball," said Liberati in a phone interview. "The first week of March, there is scheduled training followed by tryouts [for softball]."