The cry of ?Play Ball!? might soon be heard at Platteview High School.
Springfield Platteview Community Schools is considering adding two varsity sports ? spring baseball for boys and fall softball for girls ? perhaps as soon as the 2013-14 school year.
?We?re getting close to making a decision,? said Superintendent Brett Richards. ?It could be as soon as the March 11 (school board) meeting for us to make a recommendation to the board.?
To that end, the district is hosting a public forum Monday at 7 p.m. at the high school auditorium ?to get public input one more time,? Richards said.
A 14-member committee headed by Activities Director Steve Joekel, who is also Platteview?s assistant principal, has met five times since mid-October to discuss the pros and cons of adding the two sports.
Included in the committee?s discussions were the results of a survey of approximately 400 district sixth through 11th graders that asked, among other things, their overall sports participation interests.
?One of the big things to come out of the survey is we?d have more kids participating in sports, and that?s exciting for us,? Richards said.
Joekel said this is the second time in five years the district has looked at adding baseball.
?There?s been an interest in adding baseball for quite some time,? Joekel said.
He noted Springfield?s strong American Legion summer program. As for softball, Joekel said Platteview is the only Class B or Class C-1 program in the state to not offer the sport.
All other seven member schools of the Capitol Conference offer softball, and five of the seven offer baseball, including a cooperative team of Wahoo and Raymond Central.
In looking at the big picture, Joekel said the district?s primary interest is to serve the students and their extracurricular needs, whether that be athletics, music or drama.
?We have no interest in compromising or eliminating other opportunities for kids to add baseball and softball,? Joekel said.
?As an educator, the most important piece to this is to provide more opportunities for our students.?
Richards estimates start-up costs for each program to be between $7,000 to $9,000 to cover such costs as coaches? salaries, equipment, travel and facility upgrades and maintenance.
The bulk of the funding of the new baseball and softball programs would come from the high school?s activity account, which funds the sports programs, Richards said.
Source: http://www.omaha.com/article/20130220/NEWS2002/702209938
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