BOOSTER CLUB: Racing to Recombine Sports

    Members of the Springs Booster Club, who hope to raise $35,000 by the end of this month so that an estimated 40 to 45 Springs School seventh and eighth graders can continue to participate on East Hampton Middle School teams, met last Thursday with the East Hampton School District’s athletic director, Joe Vas, who encouraged them in their endeavor.

    “I would love it if these combined sports can continue, but the community will have to come up with the money,” Vas said Tuesday morning. The funding for combined sports had been cut from the budget Springs School taxpayers approved in the spring. The meeting’s attendees also included Bill Barbour, who coaches East Hampton High’s varsity football team, John Krupp, who coaches the middle school’s football team, the Springs superintendent, Dominic Mucci, and its principal, Eric Casale.

    Mary McPartland, one of the Booster Club members, said over the weekend that the East Hampton Indoor Tennis Club had donated $1,000, and that six doctors had donated $500 each. “So we’ve got a lot of optimism,” she said, “but we only have 30 more days.”

    Asked if the entire amount had to be in hand by early September, Vas said school lawyers were studying that question. Meanwhile, he’s preparing the initial paperwork, he said, having to do with the applications of two Springs eighth graders — Diana Winthrop and Andrew Wilson — who want to participate on high school teams. Winthrop wants to join the girls swimming squad, and Wilson wants to play junior varsity soccer.

    McPartland said, and Vas agreed, that the affected combined sports were middle school football, coed cross-country, girls tennis, wrestling, boys lacrosse, girls lacrosse, and coed track and field.

    McPartland said the Springs School Parent Teacher Association, a nonprofit organization, is handling the donations. They can be sent to the Springs PTA, Springs School, School Street, East Hampton 11937.