For the first time ever, J. Taylor Finley Middle School seventh and eighth grade girls are expected to have an opportunity to participate in interscholastic gymnastics. Huntington UFSD and neighboring Harborfields are finalizing plans to collaborate on a combined middle school team next spring.
Oldfield Middle School has offered girls’ gymnastics for many years. An invitation will now be extended for Finley Middle School girls to join the Oldfield team and form a combined squad.
This is an exciting new opportunity for Finley girls to have fun participating in a great sport with a wonderful group of girls from Oldfield. The Huntington and Harborfields varsity team members got along exceptionally well. The two districts also combine in both girls and boys swimming and diving and more such collaboration is expected to be announced for the 2022/23 school year.
The gymnastics season will run from Monday, March 27 to Friday, May 26. Eight meets are scheduled for the team. There will be home contests against Babylon (May 2), Gelinas/Murphy (May 12), Oakdale/Ronkonkoma (May 19) and Commack (May 26) and away meets against Hampton Bays (May 5), Smithtown (May 9), Copiague (May 16) and Hauppauge (May 23).
Finley girls can indicate interest in participating in the new joint venture by sending a message to Huntington athletic director Jim Hoops at jhoops@hufsd.edu and/or Coach Jackie Lazzarini at jlazzarini@hufsd.edu.
The middle school girls’ gymnastics collaboration makes sense. The two districts joined forces on the varsity level this year, allowing Huntington students to participate on high school girls’ gymnastics team for the first time in many years. Harborfields has fielded a girls’ gymnastics team for decades. After establishing a joint team, five Blue Devils joined the existing Harborfields team.
The combined team will most likely practice after school at Harborfields in the smaller of two gyms there that is dedicated to gymnastics. The various pieces of apparatus can be set up and left intact day-to-day, facilitating more efficient daily practices by eliminating the time it would take to breakdown and set-up. It’s the same gym where the varsity team practices and competes during the fall season.
Huntington UFSD is hoping this new opportunity is embraced by Finley girls, who are sure to have an awful lot of fun participating in an exciting sport.