Junior High soccer eyed / By Martha Knight

Junior-high soccer would cost upwards of $10,000 in its first year.

Players, about 25 of them, would be drawn from a seventh-eighth grade enrollment ranging from 117 to 149 students.

Club soccer appeals to many youngsters that age, so chances are school-sponsored soccer would as well.

Boys and girls could play on the same team.

But could the obstacles be overcome?

Those were some of the points made and a key question raised in a PowerPoint presentation used by Port Allegany Junior-Senior High School Principal Marc Budd on January 27, as he led the Port Allegany School Board through the information he had compiled.

Some soccer enthusiasts had raised the issue of adding a junior-high soccer program to the varsity soccer one, which has proved popular since its addition a few years ago. This had triggered Budd’s study.

Boys and girls play on the same team, in a number of similar programs in nearby school systems, board member Dan Kysor pointed out. He is an official at soccer events in the area.

Junior high soccer Gators would be in the North Division of the Upper Allegheny Valley Soccer League, Budd pointed out, along with Saint Marys, Coudersport, Ridgway, Kane and Smethport.

The Central Division includes Punxsutawney, Brockway, Brookville, Curwensville, Dubois Central Catholic and Elk County Christian school systems.

The South Division consists of Redbank Valley, Clarion Limestone, Cranberry, Forest, karns City an Keystone. Bradford and Northern Potter are not involved in the league.

D-9 junior high soccer programs in existence include Bradford, Clearfield and Dubois, which have boys’ and girls’ teams, and eight with co-ed teams: Elk County Christian, Brockway, Punxsutawney, Redbank Valley, Dubois Catholic, Ridgway, St. Marys and Northern Potter.

Of those, the potential opponents Budd saw, and the transportation costs associated with each, were listed as Bradford, $180; Elk County Catholic, $250; Ridgway, $270; St. Marys, $250; Northern Potter, $220; and Brockway, $330.

Those away games would cost $1,500 for transportation, according to Budd’s calculations, and costs of busing for practices would bring the total to $2,300.

Budd sees coaching costs as being $1,768 for salary, plus $522 for benefits, for s total of $2,290. These costs could climb to $2,829 in three years.

Field preparation labor for hosting six games would come to $585.36, including benefits, based on two staff persons working two hours. Five gallons of field paint per game would cost $40, or $240 for six games.

A game manager would be paid $24.44 per hour each game, including benefits. At two hours a game, this function would cost $293.38.

Officials would be paid $70 each, every game. Two per game would bring that cost to $840.

Budd estimated a roster of 25 players and costed uniforms out at $45 each, to arrive at a $2,250 total for uniforms. He added $500 for general supplies.”

Adding all the cost figures together, Budd came up with a $9,552.64 total for the first year of a junior-high soccer program.

His report to the board concluded with three items he called obstacles or considerations, and listed as facilities (Where are they going to play?), opponent availability and sustainability.

So far varsity soccer and club soccer have used borrowed turf, for the athletic field at the high school does not make provision for soccer. Verallia/Saint-Gobain, behind the company’s manufacturing facility off Mill Street, may not be available for more than another year or so, because some of that area will be the site of a flood protection expansion project now being designed.

There had been plans to create a soccer playing area at the athletic field, as part of a comprehensive stadium upgrade project that was accomplished last year.

That would have been part of an alternate contractors had been invited to bid on, calling for artificial turf. The new surface would have been marked for soccer, and there would have been other appurtenances for that sport at the east end of the field.

A special drainage system would have been installed under the artificial turf, along with the base.

When the board voted on the new stadium it approved the construction of larger, safer bleachers for home fans and visitors, and the addition of lights. But board members voted 5—4 to reject the artificial turf item along with various other features of the facilities upgrade plan, including air conditioning and better lighting and sound in the auditorium.

Among sustainability concerns that have been mentioned in the past while, even for varsity soccer as a fall sport, is athlete numbers. With school enrollment declining, and the decline projected to continue, some observers have predicted that it will be hard to recruit the needed numbers for all fall sports, in coming years.