The initial costs of setting up the four teams will be $84,000.
Minnechaugh Regional of Wilbraham plays South Hadley in a boys high school lacrosse game. CHICOPEE — After talking about it for four years, the School Committee has agreed to start a high school lacrosse program in September.
The initial costs to create boys and girls teams at Chicopee High School and Comprehensive High School is $84,000. That includes coaches’ salaries, equipment, transportation and uniforms. The annual costs will drop significantly after the first year, Superintendent Richard W. Rege Jr. said.
“The fields are available and I know the Chicopee Arbors started the lacrosse program for smaller children that became the feeder program for the high schools,” committee member Mary-Elizabeth Pniak-Costello said.
Pniak-Costello proposed the idea years ago and has pushed for it annually until the School Committee agreed it could afford to add the team sport.
The schools needed enough money to start the program, the field space for practices and games and also a so-called feeder program that would teach children the sport at a younger age so they would be ready to compete at a varsity level when they reached high school, she said.
“One good thing about this is we are not going into it too quickly. It has been studied and re-studied by administration,” Pniak-Costello said.
The sport is growing in popularity, which made the athletic department interested in the idea of starting a team, Rege said.
Because next year will be the first time the city schools have a team, they will play a modified varsity program so relatively inexperienced players from Chicopee will not have to face powerhouse teams from schools such as Longmeadow and South Hadley, he said.
The athletic department has already taken registration for spring sports and does have enough students signing up for the four teams. Coaches want at least 18 students for each team, but can accept more if more students want to play, Rege said.
Committee members agreed to create the program in a 9-0 vote.
“There is no downside to this,” Committee member David G. Barsalou said. “Everything we can add that gets kids to want to come to school is great.”