When registration for football was held recently, the school district found that interest among younger boys warrants further exploration, but school officials said in a statement released last week that registration was too low to start it at the higher levels.
Numbers in the third and fourth grade exceeded the minimum requirement to field a team. All other grade levels except those in their junior year of high school failed to reach the mark.
Fifth and sixth graders needed to reach a combined number of 18 students, but had 17 sign up. The middle school needed 30 students but after registration was held, the mark was short by half.
Interest at the high school level was even lower.
Typically, participation at the varsity level would not happen for a minimum of two seasons, or the third year of a new football program, school officials said. For that reason no benchmark was set for the 11th and 12th grade.
For the varsity program to become viable in the future, local interest for the middle school program needs to be higher than demonstrated by the recent registration.
School officials said that at this time, the football sign-ups did not provide sufficient student athletes or booster parents to support football programs at the middle and high school levels.
More than 20 showed interest in the lower elementary grades. School officials said there are enough parents willing to volunteer to create a little league booster club.
Based on the results, the school district said it would not be sponsoring a football program in the 2017-18 school year. If the community wants a program at the middle and high school level, it would need to provide a feeder program at the little league level, officials said.
