Huntington High School’s new girls’ gymnastics team is ready to flip. The Blue Devils are combining with the existing program at nearby Harborfields to field a joint team this fall. The two districts already collaborate in sponsoring girls’ and boys’ swimming and diving teams.
The new gymnastics team will practice for the first time on Monday, August 22 at 8 a.m. in the south gym at Harborfields. While Harborfields has sponsored teams on the middle school and high school levels for decades, the Blue Devils haven’t offered in decades. There have been a few individual Huntington competitors over the years, but now that the Blue Devils have joined forces with the Tornadoes, an entire new set of opportunities is available to Huntington athletes.
Huntington girls who will be in grades 7-12 next fall are eligible to participate. Those in seventh and eighth grade must qualify through the state’s Athletic Placement Process. For more information contact athletic director Jim Hoops at jhoops@hufsd.edu.
The Blue Devil coach will be Jackie Lazzarini, who has many years of experience coaching gymnastics in Nassau County schools. She has been hired to teach health at Huntington High School and Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School and is looking forward to building the new Blue Devil program.
Interested in joining Huntington’s gymnastics team? Send a message to Coach Lazzarini at jlazzarini@hufsd.edu.
Every student needs to get re-qualified by the school nurse prior to each sport season. The nurse can only clear a student-athlete who has the following forms on file:
• Private Physical Exam Form (link below)
NYS Private Physical Examination Form for Athletes
• Interval Health History Form (link below)
Interval Health History for Sports Participation (English/Spanish)
Those who want to participate on the girls’ gymnastics team should report to the Huntington High School nurse’s office on Wednesday, August 17 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon or Thursday, August 18 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon to submit their private physical exam (if necessary) and interval health history forms. Any student who wants a physical exam by the school doctor should report to the nurse’s office at 8 a.m. on Thursday, August 18.
All Blue Devil sports student-athletes are also required to submit a blue parent permission form to their coach no later than the first day of tryouts/practice.
The form can be found at this link:
Parent Consent Form for Athletes (English/Spanish)
In addition to Coach Lazzarini, Harborfields will also have a coach and both coaches will work with all team members. Practices and home meets will be held at Harborfields, which has two gyms making it easy to accommodate the gymnastics equipment.
The schedule features home contests against Bay Shore/Islip (September 7), Smithtown (September 13), Babylon (September 29), Lindenhurst (October 11) and Copiague (October 19). Harborfield/Huntington will travel to Sachem (September 16), Middle Country (September 21), Hampton Bays/Southampton (October 3), Hauppauge (October 17) and Walt Whitman (October 24) for away meets.