The deadline was June 1. The goal was $176,000. And by Tuesday night, inside a packed Montclair High School gymnasium filled with incoming freshmen and anxious parents, the community learned the mission had officially been accomplished.
The Montclair Blue and White Athletic Club announced it had surpassed its initial fundraising goal to preserve freshman sports for the 2026–2027 school year, a program that had been on the chopping block amid the district’s ongoing budget crisis.
Standing before hundreds gathered for Freshman Orientation Night, Blue and White Club President Kevin Rice delivered the news to loud applause.
“We’ve been spending the last six weeks trying to raise enough funds so that all of you have a team to play on,” Rice told a packed high school gymnasium. “The number we had to get to was $176,000. But I have a $5,000 check from the Gridiron Club that gets us over the line.”
The moment felt bigger than a fundraising update. It felt like a statement about Montclair itself.
Because in this town, athletics are not treated as extracurricular. They are woven into the identity of the high school and, for many families, into the rhythm of everyday life.
For eighth grader Eve Determann, the possibility of losing freshman sports earlier this spring felt deeply unsettling.
“I felt discouraged because the high school’s so big,” she said. “I didn’t think I was gonna have a group.”
Determann hopes to play basketball and volleyball next year, following in the footsteps of her older siblings. Like many students entering Montclair High School, sports represent more than competition. They are a built-in community during a major life transition.
“I love the teamwork of it,” she said of volleyball.
Another incoming freshman, Marcelo Quiros, described sports as part of his daily life. He plays basketball year-round and dreams of playing in college someday.
“What I’m most excited for is the whole process,” Quiros said. “Trying out for the team, meeting the coaches, meeting new teammates.”
When asked what sports provides young people outside of wins and losses, his answer was immediate: a reason to stay active, connected, and healthy.
“Sports here at Montclair is a very big thing,” he said.
That sentiment was echoed repeatedly throughout the evening by Montclair High School Athletic Director Matt Belford, who spoke passionately about what athletics teach students long after graduation.
“Discipline, time management, self-advocacy, being a teammate with teammates you love, teammates maybe you don’t love, and competing,” Belford said. “Those are life skills.”
He emphasized that the value of sports has little to do with championships.
“If you’ve played athletics at the high school level for four years, you learn those skills,” Belford said. “You have to have them.”
And Montclair’s athletic tradition runs deep.
The school is known statewide for powerhouse programs in football, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, and track. But Belford was quick to point out that many of Montclair’s most successful programs receive far less public attention.
The crew team is currently competing at nationals in Tennessee after winning one of the country’s premier regattas on the Schuylkill River. The fencing program remains one of the strongest in the state. Last year, the swimming team finished just half a point shy of a Group 4 state title. The tennis team is making another deep playoff run. Even robotics, which falls under the athletic department umbrella, has become a nationally competitive program.
For Belford, preserving freshman sports is about protecting the pipeline that allows all of those programs to thrive.
And it’s also about making sure every student feels there is a place for them.
“Pick a sport. Any sport,” Belford urged students who may not consider themselves athletes. “Be a manager. Be involved in sports media. Find your niche. Be a part of something.”
Tuesday night’s celebration was, in many ways, a rare moment of relief after months of tense budget discussions across the district. Parents, alumni, booster clubs, and community members mobilized quickly once the cuts were proposed, raising thousands of dollars in a matter of weeks to keep freshman teams alive.
And while the immediate crisis may have been averted, many speakers acknowledged the work is far from over.
“We will do everything we can from this point forward to continue to make sure that future fifth graders, sixth graders, seventh graders have the same opportunity,” Rice told the crowd.
The Montclair Athletics Blue and White Club is a registered non-profit and will continue to fundraise to meet its ultimate annual goal of $350,000. To make a donation visit their website.
