Emporia’s seventh-grade students would participate in competitive athletics under a proposal presented Wednesday to the Emporia school board. No action was taken.
Brian Pekarek, assistant principal at Emporia Middle School, presented the proposal to create a competitive athletics program for seventh-graders, who now compete in intramurals. Competitive sports begins here in eighth grade. Pekarek told board members he surveyed other districts, including Manhattan, Junction City, several Topeka schools, Blue Valley, Rose Hill, Salina and the Kansas City area.
“None of the schools run their athletic programs like Emporia Middle School,” Pekarek said. “Most of the schools have competitive athletics.”
He recommended that the board consider soccer as one of the first three sports that could be brought in, because EMS has a “huge population” interested in soccer.
“We think that if we brought in soccer, this would heavily engage our Hispanic parents,” Pekarek said.
Cross country and track would be relatively inexpensive to include for seventh-grade athletics the following year, and wrestling and basketball could be added the third year.
Pekarek told the board that seventh-grade athletics would increase athletic and supplemental budgets. Participation fees would help defray costs of the catastrophic insurance coverage through the Kansas State High School Activities Association.
Seventh-grade intramural teams could play each other competitively and make three out-of-town trips to compete within regulatory guidelines, Pekarek said.
He said that academics and discipline would benefit from seventh-grade competitive sports because participation is linked to grades.
“I can see where the disciplinary actions, when they’re not in football or basketball, is just tremendously increased,” Pekarek said.
The cost of the new program could range from $8,300 to $18,300, he said, depending upon the pay of the coaches and assistants. The board asked Pekarek to return next month with additional information about costs and other options.