Many people dedicate themselves to a sport here at Haldane. As a member of a team, students are encouraged to fight to win for their school and to build Haldane’s reputation.
A few students here have a slightly different experience with sports than many, as they are on merger teams. For example, our ice hockey and swimming teams are merger teams, where Haldane students join a group with students from other schools. The Haldane swimming merger team has students from Peekskill, Hendrick Hudson, and Croton Harmon. They all practice together at Yorktown High School and go to swim meets as one team. The hockey teams include a boys’ team, the Cortlandt Rebels, with students from Haldane, Lakeland, Walter Panas, and Putnam Valley High Schools, and a girls’ team, the North Avalanche, which includes students from Haldane and 13 other schools.
There are two possible reasons for having merger teams: either not enough students from Haldane are interested in a sport to make a full team, or Haldane simply doesn’t have enough resources.
Although the experience is unlike what you would have on an all-Haldane sports team, being on a merger team has its benefits. Students get to meet many new people, according to freshman Aisling Stathos, who is a player on the girls’ hockey merger. “I am so grateful that Haldane allows me to play my sport and represent my school,” Stathos said. “I have so much fun. It is an amazing opportunity to meet peers in your area that share the passion for the sport.”
In addition to meeting new people, players on a merger team also get to experience being in an unfamiliar environment. This can help prepare them for situations that they may experience later in life, such as ones where they’re an outsider and need to integrate themselves into a new community.
A drawback of being on a merger team is that students don’t get as much support from their friends and community back at Haldane. This is partially due to it being much more of a journey to get to their games. Haldane Athletic Director Tom Cunningham noted that mostly family members go to the events. “Sometimes it’s difficult with the games and meets being where they are,” he said, “and hockey is usually late at night or on Sundays, so it makes it difficult for students to get to the events.” In addition to the challenge of non-local competitions, merger teams are also just not as talked about at school as the sports that compete on campus; many people don’t even know that they exist.
However, Haldane does do what it can to recognize players on the merger teams for their performance in their games and meets. “We recognize the merger teams at the end of year awards ceremony,” Cunningham stated. “We also post things on the monitor in the hall, like when the girls’ ice hockey team won sectionals and made it to the state playoff game.”
Although they compete beyond the Haldane campus, students on merger teams are still able to represent their school through their individual performance and hard work.
