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Citywide Athletic Program a Priority for Hartford

Scott Caricato
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Rookie Pix
Hartford is hoping to coordinate all of its youth sports programs to better utilize the city's facilities.
"We have Hartford soccer play some of their games in Bloomfield because it is easier to get the fields than in Hartford."
Brian Gallagher

The City of Hartford is considering the creation of two new positions to boost participation in citywide youth sports programs.

Hartford has plenty of opportunities for kids to get involved in organized sports, and enough facilities to accommodate them. The problem is there's no one on the city level to coordinate all the programs, equipment, and facilities, and that can cause major headaches.

A perfect example is the hoops a sports organization must jump through simply to reserve a place to practice.

"You have to go through the Department of Public Works, you have to get approval from the school, and then you have to get approval from the Board of Education, and then you have to pay for custodians, and then you have to have insurance," said Brian Gallagher, a physical education teacher and boy's soccer coach at Hartford's Classical Magnet High School. "Right now, we have Hartford soccer play some of their games in Bloomfield because it is easier to get the fields in Bloomfield than it is to get in Hartford."

Gallagher, as part of his master's thesis, suggested the problem could be solved by creating two new city positions -- a sports "czar," as Gallagher described it, that would oversee and coordinate youth sports programs and facilities, and an Athletic Director that would coordinate sports programs in public schools.

The proposal has the blessing of Mayor Pedro Segarra, and last week the city council allocated $90,000 to get the program rolling. Gallagher said the goal is to get more kids involved in sports.

"The more kids that we can get playing sports, the better their attendance will be, and the better academics they will do," said Gallagher. According to a 2014 study by the University of Kansas, 98 percent of student athletes in Kansas graduated from high school, and performed better on assessment tests compared with their non-athlete counterparts.

Ray Hardman is Connecticut Public’s Arts and Culture Reporter. He is the host of CPTV’s Emmy-nominated original series Where Art Thou? Listeners to Connecticut Public Radio may know Ray as the local voice of Morning Edition, and later of All Things Considered.

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