Newtown High School in Elmhurst has been around for 129 years, and in all that time it has never had a football team. That is about to change. The school is renovating its athletic complex so it can field a football program for the first time in its history.
A school this old getting its first football team is good Queens news, and it reaches beyond the sport. The renovation is set to serve more than 350 student athletes and benefit the school’s 1,750-plus students overall, in a part of Elmhurst that, like much of dense central Queens, is badly short on green space and athletic facilities. In a neighborhood like this, a rebuilt field is one of the only places a teenager can actually go to play.
The football team is the headline, but the infrastructure matters more. School pride and a Friday-night team are good for a building of 1,750 kids. The bigger payoff is giving hundreds of student athletes a place to train and compete, and giving the rest of the students somewhere to go outside after school, something wealthier and less crowded districts take for granted. In Elmhurst, that access is scarce.
A 129-year-old school finally building toward its first football team runs against the usual education story, which is about cuts and closures and things being taken away. This is a school adding something and expanding what it can offer its kids, in a neighborhood that does not get a lot of that.
If you have a connection to Newtown High, this is worth some local pride and some support. Watch for when the renovated complex opens and the first team takes the field, and back the school’s athletics. A building this old launching its first football program in 129 years is a milestone a whole neighborhood can get behind. Go Newtown.
Featured image: Photo by Shane O’Brien
