At the Princeton Regional Schools Board of Education meeting on January 24, Fred Cooper, parent of PHS student wrestler Erik Cooper, was the first of a group of some twenty-five parents, coaches, student wrestlers and their supporters to make a case for a dedicated space for the PHS Wrestling Team to be included in the plans when the old gym at the Princeton High School is renovated.
Mr. Cooper spoke of the great wrestling tradition at PHS where there are kids in the program whose fathers wrestled in the 1970s. He told the board of the poor condition of the Valley Road building facilities that the students have been using for the past two seasons. "Wrestlers are asking for a decent place to wrestle," he said, adding that the Valley Road site has inadequate shower and locker facilities as well as sanitary and safety issues concerning mold and asbestos, among other concerns.
"The wrestling team has a simple request," he said, "a dedicated wrestling room at PHS where the team doesn't have to roll and unroll the mats every day and where it can practice in a safe and healthy environment. Especially compared to many of the more ambitious components of the school's new construction program, it's a very inexpensive and easily met request."
The wrestling team has been practicing in a room in the Valley Road administration building during the construction and renovation of the high school, part of the Princeton Regional School District's construction plan approved by voters in in 2001.
At Tuesday's board meeting, student wrestlers conveyed their views that the current arrangement is not only unsatisfactory from a health and safety point of view, it is demoralizing to them as athletes practicing a sport which they feel is undervalued. They spoke of having to walk to practice from the high school to the Valley Road building in freezing temperatures, to work out on mats that are old and worn, in a space with inadequate padding and showering facilities and lack of on-site medical care for the inevitable scrapes and bruises that go along with the sport.
Erik Cooper, a PHS junior, stated that facilities for wrestlers have always been a problem at PHS with the sport having to be fitted around the needs of other athletic groups such as the basketball team, for example. "Please give us a room," he said.
PHS Senior Mark Jeevaratnam spoke of the discipline and the rewards that wrestling has brought to his life. "Wrestling is a lifestyle," he said. "It's a sport that welcomes all, whether tall, short, thick, or thin. It changes kids' lives for the better. The current space in Valley Road is miserable."
Parent and team supporter Ellen Souter, whose son was co-captain in 2002, said: "Parents are appalled that wrestlers are having to go to the Valley Road building. We've been quiet and patient until now. During my years as a wrestling parent, we were told that changes were coming. We knew we were getting a new facility. Now we hear that we are getting second best."
In a letter addressed to School Board Members, Superintendent Judith Wilson, Principal Gary Snyder and Athletic Director John Miranda, parents stated their concerns "about the facilities being made available to the wrestling program and their potential implication to the future of the sport in our community."
The letter also mentioned "receiving mixed signals about where the program will be located post-construction completion" and expressed the expectation that "based on past understandings" the program should be housed on-site at Princeton High School "in the old gym in a designated room set apart by padded permanent walls that will adequately ensure the safety and health of the students who are wrestlers."
The letter also stressed the "multicultural" benefits of the wrestling program and the fact that it encourages strong academic performance and offers peer tutoring for teammates.
At Tuesday's meeting, parents expressed their concerns about rumored plans for the old gym at the High School and suggested that anything less than a dedicated space for wrestling would not be acceptable.
Board President Anne Burns responded to the parents' and students' criticism of the current arrangement by pointing out that the use of the Valley Road building is a temporary solution to the disruption caused to all athletic groups at the high school by the construction.
Wrestling is a rapidly growing sport in the Princeton area with some 120 children wrestling at PHS, JWMS and in the PAWS Princeton Youth Program.
(This story was compiled by the Town Topics editorial staff.)