Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
A unique arrangement between the Boys and Girls Club and Sweet Home Junior High School has resulted in a new junior high soccer program that has local soccer families and coaches excited about the rise of the sport in Sweet Home.
The program has allowed Sweet Home to field boys and girls teams in the junior high Tri-County League, something the junior high has been unable to do in recent years due to costs. The other advantage of the arrangement is that the young teens don?t have to play against the other gender, which is the case in the Boys and Girls Club league, which fields coed teams.
?The Boys and Girls Club is running the programs,? Junior High Athletic Director Louis Dix said.
As they enter junior high, ?a lot of kids lose interest? in playing soccer, he said. ?I think they?re interested in playing with their own gender.?
The level of competition is the main difference, Dix said. Under the Boys and Girls Club system, teams like Sweet Home and Lebanon have struggled at the high school level because the level of interest has dropped off.
Parent Lela Danforth was a driving force behind the new program.
?We moved to this area, and I was asking about the soccer program,? Danforth, who is a volunteer coach, said. The only one available was through the Boys and Girls Club. ?I was highly disappointed because it was uncompetitive.?
Parent Al Grove said that soccer has not gotten the level of support that other programs have.
?You want to be competitive, you have to play competitive teams,? he said.
To prepare for the competitive high school environment, Grove said, girls need to play girls, and boys need to play boys. In junior high, the game changes as well ? the endurance necessary to be successful, the speed of the game and players? kicking power all increase.
Teams, like Cascade and Stayton, have club programs that feed their high school programs, Dix noted.
Danforth said that though the girls team, in particular, is ?inexperienced,? since the beginning of the season, both the boys and girls have become much more competitive.
Hosting North Marion at the beginning of the season, both teams lost. Both won last week when they traveled to North Marion.
The girls lost 3-0 in the first contest. They won 5-2 in their second. They carry a 1-3-1 record, which technically counts as a winning record, Dix said. The boys are 4-2.
The new program has made a difference in the number of junior high athletes who go out for soccer, Grove said. The team had perhaps 20 players last year. This year, the two teams combine for some 40 players.
The cooperative arrangement came after Danforth, who has children playing sports at both the high school and the junior high levels, contacted Supt. Larry Horton about putting together separate boys and girls soccer teams. She said Horton told her the district did not have the money to run the program. Danforth then went to Dix and Mike Carpenter, then-athletic director at the Boys and Girls Club.
To run a regular junior high schedule, the team would need to raise the money for transportation, materials and other costs.
?I was willing to step up to the plate,? Danforth said. She started leading fund-raising efforts.
?We have a very talented group of kids, especially on the boys side,? Danforth said.
?The parental involvement is strong,? Grove said.
The growth in skill and enthusiasm at the junior high level is expected to pay off for the high school teams, which have struggled mightily this year, in terms of numbers and competition.
?In the next three or four years, I see us in the state playoffs,? Danforth predicted. ?I see us competing at the state level.?
?I think we?re going to see some marked improvement,? Dix said. ?It should have a huge impact at the high school level. It?s necessary if we want our high school team to have a winning program, and I think one reasons (teams like) Albany and Lebanon are at a disadvantage.?
?We?re getting a lot more kids involved,? said high school boys Coach Karl Schmidtman. That will help get bigger numbers out in high school, and ?we should easily be able to form JV and varsity squads.?
For the high school girls, ?I think this is going to help their program even more than it?s helped ours,? Schmidtman said. The girls have only had a varsity team. Now incoming girls will have more experience, and bigger numbers will help form a junior varsity squad.
?I?m just really excited to see it turning around,? said Schmidtman, who teachers at the junior high.
The girls team is coached by Danforth and junior high teacher Michelle Clarno. The boys are coached by Ramiro Santana, a longtime Boys and Girls Club coach and father of one of the players, and Oak Heights Principal Keith Winslow.
Danforth wanted to especially thank Dix; Kristin Adams, who coordinated the Boys and Girls Club?s side of the new program; high school Athletic Director Steve Emmert; and sponsor Craig Fentiman and Farmer?s Insurance.
The high school in general has been helpful, Danforth said. Baseball Coach Tow has provided a practice field for the teams in the baseball outfield. The team also has been able to use the high school varsity soccer fields.
?There?s been a ton of parental support,? Schmidtman said. ?Without them, we probably wouldn?t have a junior high team.?