Dan Shaughnessy tackles the Stoneham School Committee's decision to cancel all sports at the high school in today's Globe.

And I agree with everything he has to say. Including this:

A high school without teams is a body without heart, without soul. It's also a recipe for disaster. We need our kids applying their bodies and minds in those hours after the last bell rings. We need them learning the lessons of team-above-self, dedication, and commitment.

Eliminating high school sports in order to address mounting budgetary problems (that almost certainly have nothing to do with JV girls basketball) is the type of short-sighted decision that ruins the high school experience for the hundreds of students (and parents) directly affected. But in the long term, it creates an identity crisis that no municipality wants- we're broke and if you live here and have kids that want to play sports, then prepare to pay for private school. Oh, and we're gonna be jacking up your property taxes every year and if you want us to pick up your trash, that's $200.

What young couple planning to start a family would move to Stoneham now? The bad publicity from the School Committee's decision may be even more damaging to Stoneham's financial future than the $3 million budget shortfall that prompted the elimination of high school sports in the first place. Lower housing prices; a graying population that eats up municipal resources; little public support for educational spending of any kind (which happens when none of the tax payers actually have children in the schools their taxes support); tougher times for local businesses without the local families that buy their subs, milk, newspaper, oil changes, etc.

The only people that benefit from this decision are the coaches of the private schools in the area. Now they get to cherry-pick Stoneham's best athletes for their own teams.

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