Edited by Chris Tillen
The question comes up every year: Why aren’t there sports teams for East Rock School?
Many students at East Rock Community & Cultural Magnet School don’t just want to bounce a basketball in the gym or kick a soccer ball at recess, they want to play for the school.
“I love competing,” said Cristalee Rodriguez, a 3rd grader who wishes she had the chance to join a gymnastics team at East Rock.
Chase Chow-Yen, a third grader, enjoys competing and getting stronger. Outside of school he plays football, basketball, and track. But at school, he wants more opportunities. Mr. Chow-Yen said he likes soccer, and he also wants school sports uniforms.
Jason Lin, in 4th grade said East Rock should have sports but not soccer. He wants options for other sports, including volleyball and badminton instead of contact sports.
Samuel Wurstle, in 2nd grade, wants to join a school basketball team. Van Smith, in 4th grade, has played soccer as part of the New Haven Counts program, but has in mind a different team: “I wish there could be baseball.”
Students at East Rock, including those in younger grades, want sports teams at the school. According to the East Rock Record Fall/Winter 2025 Survey, 86 percent said they wished the school had more sports teams; 78 percent said that if there were more teams, they would join.
East Rock School has had sports teams in the past. For several years there was a basketball team that Principal Sabrina Breland, an accomplished and decorated player who has been inducted into the Connecticut Basketball Hall of Fame, said played a few games around the district.
Now, Hector Cruz, a parent and substitute at East Rock School, runs a basketball program after school on Wednesdays; it is open to all students in grades 3-8.
The only other sports at the school right now are a cheerleading team and soccer through the Math Counts tutoring program. Also, during the winter, Ms. Breland said there is a hockey club with 29 students who learn to skate and play alongside students from Troup School at the Ralph Walker Rink on State Street.
The cheerleading team, coached by a Yale student, meets during lunch on Fridays. The Math Counts tutoring program has a soccer team that competes every other Friday against other New Haven Math counts teams.
Despite these programs, the school lacks the traditional sports teams that students say they want. Mary Glickman, who teaches physical education at East Rock School, said a big problem is that it is hard to start and keep sports teams at K-8 schools.
The New Haven Public Schools does offer some middle school sports through a “coop” method that lets schools “share” programs (like the hockey club at Troup). There is also a middle school cross country team at Edgewood School that students from other schools may join.
And two middle schoolers from East Rock School — Marlin Rodriguez in 8th grade and Yasmine Kua in 7th grade — play on a middle school volleyball team that is coached by Renee Baker, a teacher at Fair Haven School.
“She really inspired me, and many others to always try and always do,” said Ms. Rodriguez. She added that East Rock School “absolutely” needs more sports. She said some of her friends tried out and wanted to play on the Fair Haven volleyball team, but they could not get on the team.
Many adults like the idea of school sports offerings, even at elementary and middle school grades. Monique Holloway, the school psychologist, sees a real benefit: “It would be awesome if we had an actual sports program that was run by coaches, especially during the afterschool.”
Kim DiGiovanna, a new third grade teacher, believes that sports give kids the chance to play as a team and work together. They also help people work “really hard” to get “better and better and better at it.”
“I believe in sports big time,” she said. “I think all kids should play sports. You can learn a lot from it, a lot of different life skills.” She would even like to coach basketball.
When asked what sports she would want to bring, Principal Breland would like to bring “all of them” to East Rock because she thinks sports teach life lessons. If she could bring anything, she would bring pickleball.
But getting sports teams at the school is not easy. And it costs money. “To increase school sports offerings at East Rock or at any school we would have to vastly increase the budgeting for that,” said Coach Glickman.
According to Ms. Breland, there is also the problem of coaching. “We pretty much don’t have sports for anyone,” she said, referring to traditional teams. She said that it is difficult to get coaches to commit to “hold practices, try to organize games, and support the development in that sport.” For a sports program to work, she said, “somebody needs to commit time to that.”
Even if students cannot play on a team, Coach Baker encouraged them to work on their skills for the future. “If you’re interested in sports, practice, don’t get discouraged,” said Coach Baker.
