The school’s Title IX /Gender Equity committee met this week to go over the results of two meetings held last week to gauge the interest of the school starting boys’ and girls’ soccer teams.
After going over the numbers and discussing the numerous factors involved, the committee decided to recommend the school system go forward with the formation of the new sport.
“We spent a lot of time on this,” LCHS athletic director Hugh McReynolds said. “We’re going to recommend to the school board that they consider it. I’m going to write up a recommendation and once it’s finished, we’ll send it right on to the board.”
McReynolds said he was not sure if the school board, which meets once a month, would vote on the issue at its April or May board meeting.
Students enrolled in grades 5 through 10 were the ones being targeted for the meetings, because those are the ages that will be most affected by the decision.
There were 13 boys and 20 girls at the meetings in those grades.
“The boys numbers were low,” McReynolds said. “But we know some people couldn’t make it to either meeting.”
If the school board votes to move ahead with forming the soccer teams, the plan would be to slowly phase the sport in.
The first year would establish a middle school-only program involving students in grades 5 through 8. It would be run similar to the current Logan County middle school football program.
In the second year, the middle school program would continue and a high school freshman/junior varsity team would also be started.
The third year of the program would have both the middle school team and the freshman/junior varsity team and a high school varsity team would be fielded in the fourth year.
McReynolds said that if the team seems to be more competitive as a junior varsity team in its second year, the timeline for varsity soccer could be moved up to the third year. Similarly, if the JV squad isn’t very competitive in the third year, the formation of a varsity team could be pushed back to year 5.
The biggest hurdle the formation of the soccer teams now faces is funding.
“We do have some reservations,” McReynolds said. “The biggest one will probably be how much it is going to cost. I know money is an issue for the school board right now.”
If money turns out not to be an issue, the Logan County soccer teams could begin play as early as August.
McReynolds said if the school board gives the project a green light, as long as a practice field was ready in time, the team could be up and running for the upcoming school year.
The teams, which would be made up of middle school players, already has a league they could play in.
McReynolds said there is loosely formed middle school league that is made up primarily of schools in the Bowling Green and Owensboro areas.
The league begins play around the first of August and runs through the end of September.
The Title IX /Gender Equity committee will also be recommending that the school board okays a new wrestling club for the high school.
Last week’s meetings showed some interest from several students in wrestling.
McReynolds said the school is hoping to have a wrestling mat donated so that an intramural club can be formed.
“This will be kind of like what we did with archery,” McReynolds said. “We’ll let them get it started and then just see where it goes.”
The biggest hurdle for the wrestling club will likely be finding an individual to sponsor the team who knows enough about wrestling to coach the students a little.
“The one thing that really stood out to us was that many of those that attended the meetings were kids that currently were not a part in any other school activities,” McReynolds said. “If we can get those kind of kids involved, that would be a good thing. Kids that take part in sports or any other school activities tend do much better in their academics.”
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