Monroe-Woodbury School District to eliminate varsity hockey program

HARRIMAN — Approximately 200 people attended the Monroe-Woodbury School Board meeting on Wednesday, March 29, to comment on the board’s decision to eliminate the high school’s varsity hockey program.
Two days earlier, Superintendent of Schools Elsie Rodriguez sent an email to the parents of the varsity hockey team players, advising them that the board had decided to eliminate the program as a cost-saving measure.
Monroe-Woodbury “has been the only Orange County public school district to maintain an ice hockey team in Section IX.”
Monroe-Woodbury plays its homes games at IceTime Sports in Newburgh; most away games are played in Rockland and Westchester counties.
In her email Rodriguez also wrote that the district has “since learned that these districts are developing other program offerings rather than bringing back hockey, and Monroe-Woodbury is now looking to do the same.”
Rodriguez indicated that the school board would welcome comments at the meeting,but would not answer questions regarding the decision to eliminate the program.
For more than an hour Wednesday evening, about 20 people, including members of the hockey team, parents and alumni asked the board to reconsider its decision.
Emotional pleas from the players and parents echoed a theme of how hockey players, like all student athletes, dream of wearing their school colors to representing their school and the community.
Others spoke of the role hockey plays in character building. It also provides a “sense of place” and some structure, especially in today’s world, another added.
Makenzie Schroeder, a sophomore who this year became the first female to play on the varsity hockey team, spoke of breaking through barriers and achieving her dream of playing varsity ice hockey for Monroe-Woodbury.
As the first girl to ever score a goal on the boys varsity hockey team, she pleaded with the board to not let her be the “only girl” to ever accomplish that.
The speakers also noted that hockey is unique because it requires an extensive commitment from the players and their parents simply to play the sport.
M-W does not have school-run modified (middle school) team as other schools in Rockland and Westchester do. There is a team funded by parents and coached by volunteers that plays under the name of Monroe Woodbury. This program feeds the varsity program and currently has more than 20 local players.
Matthew Skarkas, an M-W alumni and former varsity player is a hockey coach at IceTime Sports in Newburgh, MW’s home rink. He said that the sport is becoming more popular with the young than it has since the economic downturn of 2008, and many of the young players reside within the M-W district.
Rodriguez said she would schedule a meeting at a future date with the hockey community and “answer questions regarding the future of the hockey program.”
Meanwhile, in an interview Thursday, Rodriguez said the district spent $63,000 on the hockey program; that included transportation costs and renting ice time.
The district, she said will be re-allocating that money to fun four new programs: a freshman football team, junior varsity lacrosse teams for boys and girls and unified sports program for special education students.