The students of Communication High School (CHS) have enjoyed the competitive nature of lunchtime activity for years. Whether through table tennis, volleyball or basketball, CHS has evolved into a place to foster one’s love for athletics—until now.
In the past, CHS students have enjoyed using their hour of lunch to play games of touch football. This school year, Principal Emily Bonilla has put an end to their fun. This decision sparked an intense debate throughout the school, leaving many students frustrated with the change.
Bonilla declined to be interviewed. However, she did mention an issue proposed by Wall High School, stating that students were too far away from the faculty during lunch.
One student who protested the initial decision was CHS junior and frequent participant in lunchtime football Dominic Golembieski of Tinton Falls. Golembieski decided to speak up and contact Bonilla.
“I mean, no one’s ever really gotten hurt. [The juniors have] been here for two years, and there’s never really been a problem or an issue,” Golembieski said. “I understand why Bonilla is upset, but we’re working together to bring football back.”
Over the course of three meetings, Golembieski and Bonilla discussed the future of how students can safely participate in sports during lunch. In the first meeting, they established rules and expectations for football. In the second meeting, Golembieski presented his idea for an intramural sports club. In the third meeting, they discussed how this club would reintroduce lunchtime sports and host school-regulated events and tournaments.
Golembieski asked CHS fitness and health teacher Jennifer Baldaccini to be the advisor of his club, which she accepted.
“I said that I’d be more than willing to be the advisor for it,” Baldaccini said. “A lot of kids that play sports need to get out, move, be social and do what they love.”
Baldaccini is also the advisor for a few other athletic clubs such as Table Tennis Club and Pickleball Club. She believes that Bonilla will have all of these miscellaneous athletic clubs condensed into one intramural sports club.
Nurse Dorothy Condon of CHS shared some of her biggest worries regarding sports here.
“I have a lot of concerns with broken fingers,” said Condon. “Broken and dislocated fingers, it happens all the time. There was a very bad injury with flag football 10 to 15 years ago where a girl dislocated her knee, so we got rid of it back then … [but] if we see some data then we could reconsider. In my opinion we should do a trial for a month or two and see what happens.”
While the final outcome remains unclear, Golembieski, his friends and Baldaccini are hopeful to see sports come back to CHS at some point during 2025.
