City Section cuts two stipends for football, basketball

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In the first step toward dealing with budget cuts, the City Section has ordered schools to cut two coaching stipends from the football and basketball programs, Commissioner Barbara Fiege said Friday.

The boys’ and girls’ basketball programs will each lose one position, which was for the freshman-sophomore coach. It will leave each basketball program with two stipends. Schools will have to decide whether they want to continue having a freshman-sophomore team with the varsity or junior varsity coach running the squad.

Football will go from having stipends for the head coach plus five assistants to having stipends for a head coach plus three assistants. And schools are not permitted to raise funds on their own to pay for assistants.

Fiege said that by reducing these positions, schools hopefully would not have to cancel sports.

-- Eric Sondheimer