Staff Writer

Early spring weather that allowed athletes to practice outdoors made Scarborough High School Athletic Director Gary Groves smile this week.

A winter of hard work by local parents ensures some of those teams will have a chance to play. Boosters raised about $27,000 to restore funding cuts made in January for seventh-grade baseball, softball and lacrosse teams and lower-level high school teams in the same high school sports.

The cuts were made after the Maine Department of Education reduced its subsidy for the current local school budget by about $1.13 million. Subsidies were reduced to help close a state budget gap of $63 million following a curtailment order issued last November by Gov. John Baldacci.

The money raised will be used to help pay stipends for coaches, fees for officials and travel costs for games. Jay Mazur, athletic department liaison at Scarborough Middle School, said teams will play 10 games each at the seventh-grade level.

Seventh-grade boys lacrosse coach Cash Wiseman said schedules are the same as in past years, even as other school districts grapple with budget issues.

“I just want the kids to play,” said Wiseman, who is married to Board of Education member Jane Wiseman.

Cherie Porter, who helped boosters raise money for girls’ lacrosse teams, said the efforts to raise at least $5,000 were directed first and most successfully at players’ families.

Porter said boosters sent e-mails to about 125 people about a week after the board voted to eliminate the teams. Within two weeks, she said, perhaps 80 to 85 percent of those e-mailed had contributed to the cause.

Funding for Scarborough lacrosse teams also will be aided by a benefit show that will feature comedian Bob Marley at 6 p.m., May 2, at the Comedy Connection in Portland.

After the vote to eliminate the funding, Superintendent David Doyle said he met with Groves to discuss how boosters could raise money for the teams.

Aside from having to get an early start to meet an April 1 deadline, the only restriction was that students could not raise money themselves because the seasons had not started, Doyle said.

Girls lacrosse coaches Roger Prince and Robin Thurston said they were confident the money could be raised.

“You may be the best lacrosse class in the whole system,” he told his seventh-grade team as he and Thurston reviewed fundamentals of stick work Monday afternoon.

The impetus to keep the teams was naturally there because so many members played in youth programs before middle school, he said.

“The parents would not let them miss it,” Prince said.

Volunteer Dan Warren said boosters raised about $10,500 to help fund three seventh- and eighth-grade boys’ baseball teams, which began working out Tuesday. Warren said contributions from the Scarborough Little League and Libby-Mitchell American Legion Post No. 76 will help the seventh-grade, high school first team and an expansion team of seventh- and eighth-graders play this spring.

The families of players contributed most of the money, Warren said.

“Fundraising is never easy the higher you get in sports,” he said. “At this level, there is more specialization, and families were willing to give to keep the specialization going.”

Scarborough’s proposed education budget for next year calls for $200,000 to be raised from fees for all extra-curricular activities, including sports at all levels. The board of education will consider to how to implement activities fees at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 15. Doyle said the board also is considering whether to consolidate booster organizations by the beginning of the 2012 school year.

“It may help streamline what they do,” Doyle said.

For more information on the Bob Marley show, visit bobmarleycomedyshow.eventbrite.com.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219