PSAL All Access: The Road to Sports for All

At Stuyvesant, students have access to 42 sports teams, ranging from football to table tennis. However, most public schools aren’t this fortunate. Due to a lack of practice space, equipment, and funding for sports programs, many schools can’t provide as many athletic opportunities to their students. In the fall of 2022, the PSAL introduced its All-Access program to allow students who don’t have certain athletic opportunities at their schools to participate in sports programs at other schools.

For the Stuyvesant Peglegs Football Team, it's been a year since All-Access was implemented and the impact it has had on the team has been evident. Initially, there were some challenges with familiarity with one another, but students from other schools quickly made an impact on the Peglegs’ performance. Athletes like Bodhi Sabongui from Laguardia, Anthony Ferreria from Murry Bergtraum, and Jermaine Strong from Graphics Campus were all key contributors to the 2023 Peglegs; all three were two-way starters and great leaders of the team as Sabongui was a captain and both Ferreria and Strong were weekly captains. Sabongui was even included in the PSAL’s All-City team for his dominant performances on the field. Furthermore, the increased playerbase allowed for more depth than ever, as the active roster had reached 40 people by the end of the season compared to the 28 from the year prior. Also, as Murry Bergtraum was one of the schools they were paired with and the Peglegs’ new coach Cameron Simerau taught at the school, the team was able to practice at Murry Bergtraum’s field, giving them more space to practice as opposed to sharing Pier 40 with boys’ and girls’ soccer. Furthermore, with access to Murry Bergtraum’s weight room, the Peglegs were able to have off-season team lifts for the first time. All of these changes are having a major positive impact on the team, and the players are realizing it. Senior Varsity Football Captain Braminder Kumar said, “Without the players, resources, and coaching that All-Access has gotten us, we wouldn’t be in the playoff hunt like we actually are today.”

While the program has been extremely beneficial for the team, especially this year, the greatest impact has been felt by the athletes. Through All-Access, both students who view sports as a hobby and those who see it as a potential career can participate. Sabongui, Ferreria, and Strong all have football as a part of their future aspirations. Strong has continued his football journey in college, playing for Division II program Alfred State; Sabongui has transferred to reigning NY State High School champions Cardinal Hayes in hopes of going to a Division 1 program; and Ferreria has continued to dominate for the Peglegs and also hopes to play in college. “All-Access has allowed me to chase my dreams as an athlete,” said Ferreria. For athletes who just see football as a hobby, playing still has a major impact on their lives, getting students healthier and more focused academically due to PSAL’s strict academic eligibility rules.

While All-Access is extremely important to the football team, it’s not the only sports program at Stuy that is reaping the benefits of the new program. Boys soccer with senior Langston Byrd from NYC iSchool and girls swimming with sophomore Lily Ramirez from Humanities Preparatory Academy are just a few of the teams that also benefit from the program. Athletes from all three of these teams agreed that All-Access had become a key part of their programs, and they were glad they were able to meet the athletes from different schools. Sid Murtha, the senior goalkeeper on the boys soccer team, said “our All-Access players are very good.”

Even though All-Access has undoubtedly been a success for teams and athletes alike throughout New York City, the initiative of increasing sports access needs to continue to grow. Youth sports research has revealed that there has been a staggering six percent decrease in sports participation between 2019 and 2022, for children between the ages of 13-17. Furthermore, although the percentage of lower-income students participating in sports has increased from 2019 to 2022 from 20.9% to 25.8%, they are still nearly twice less likely to participate in sports than middle-class families. Additionally, health concerns among children are growing, with 20% of children being obese and around five to ten percent of children facing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. As studies show that after-school sports programs are the best obesity reduction strategy for children, increasing sports access and participation through programs like the PSAL’s All-Access are key to addressing these growing health issues. 

The academic implications of sports access are just as important as the health implications. According to Project Play, students who participate in high school sports are more likely to attend and graduate college, receive higher marks than non-athletes, and possess better mental health than students who did not participate. 

For schools in large cities generally and especially in New York City, limited space and limited resources make creating opportunities for sports access and encouraging sports participation extremely difficult. Despite this, All-Access has revolutionized sports access for high school students throughout NYC. While other cities have programs that support student athletics, the scale at which New York has been able to accomplish this feat should be a wake-up call for other cities nationwide to implement their own All-Access programs and to let students become student-athletes, leaders, and healthier people, all across the country.