Mason Fullerton '25
Athletics have been a key part of Abington Friends School’s culture for a very long time. In the Friends School League era, AFS has put up 34 league championships and has produced many successful college athletes. But despite the success, there seems to be some hesitation from the school to really put considerable support into the athletics program.
Nearly a year ago, Casey Smothers ‘25 wrote an article detailing why AFS needs a track. Smothers had lots of good reasoning on why AFS needs a track, such as increased risk for injury without one, and not having proper facilities leading to unpreparedness among athletes.
While building a full track, as well as the things necessary for the field events–like pole vault and high jump–is very expensive, I, and I would hope many others, would see it as an investment in not only the performance and readiness of athletes, but also the safety of them as well.
While building a track is one of the most expensive improvements to athletics, it is certainly not the only one. AFS swimming practices in the indoor pool of the Abington Club, which is not in the best condition. The roof leaks, there is mold on the pool deck, and the temperature in the pool is not consistent.
While these things are not as expensive as building a track, they aren’t necessarily cheap. But yet again, like a track, they would be monumental in improving the conditions and performance of AFS athletes.
But improvements to sports don’t need to be long construction processes or expensive investments. For baseball and softball, a batting cage is something that is a fairly inexpensive way to improve facilities.
You can buy a high-quality batting cage for $600, which is not a huge financial commitment. The benefit of this is that it can be used by two sports teams for just one investment.
Another example of an improvement that doesn’t cost a lot of money is getting readily accessible mat cleaning supplies for the wrestling team. Hygiene is very important in wrestling to prevent skin infection, and having good supplies that the team can use to clean mats before practice will help the health of wrestlers, naturally improving performance.
There are many more improvements, both small and large, that would be beneficial to the AFS athletics program. Investing money into these improvements would help our athletics program improve, both in facilities and performance. Some of the larger projects would take a lot of work to get into place, but they are the most necessary because most of those are just getting to a good baseline with facilities.
Some of the small stuff, however, wouldn’t take a long time to plan or execute, and wouldn’t be a huge financial burden on the school. I hope that in the future, investments can be made in AFS athletics to make the programs stronger and keep them growing.