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New Canaan High School Squash Requests $20,000 from District: ‘No Funding Means an End to the Program’
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Saying they need $20,000 to operate beyond this winter season or that the entire program will fold, the founders of the New Canaan High School Squash Team and participating students on Monday night called for district officials to find money to support them. Squash is an increasingly popular, fun and character-building sport that serves both boys and girls, and for the eight years that New Canaan High School’s program has been running—now with varsity club status—it’s been operated by volunteer parent Liz Schmidt, she said. Schmidt told the Board of Education at its meeting Monday that she is retiring after this season and that funds are needed to pay a coach and keep it going. No funding “means an end to the program” and “lower-than-requested funding is understandable, but would require us to cut down on the number of kids that we can admit to the program.”
“We understand that there have to be parameters on how and where money is spent,” Schmidt said during the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School and attended by dozens of the 80 students who play on the Rams teams, as well as several squash parents. “However, we would like to respectfully suggest that perhaps the parameters for funding New Canaan High School sports be looked at.