Thursday, January 18, 2018

Joplin R-8 proposal would combine middle school sports, cheerleading squads

The Joplin R-8 Board of Education will hear a proposal to combine all middle school sports and cheerleading squads when it meets 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Memorial Administration Building.

The move continues the approach taken by the district when it combined the East, North and South basketball teams and instituted intramural programs at each school.

The sports affected, in addition to cheerleading, would be football, volleyball, wrestling and cross country.

The move is necessary, according to the proposal, which was submitted by athletic directors Matt Hiatt and Jacob Williams, because of Joplin's move into the COC Conference.






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How did it turn out for the basketball? There are so many activities for kids today to choose from now that I am sure the kids that are not good enough to make the team can find something they are better suited for.

Anonymous said...

This is very sad. I am a parent of a middle school student and she is disappointed that they decided to do this. She is afraid that she won't have a chance on making the team next year. Is it an issue with finding coaches? I think there will be several kids that miss out on an opportunity to play sports and be able to participate in a team building activity. Many girls that tried out for basketball were cut because there weren't enough slots for them. Also, the transportation nightmare of transporting the kids to one central school location and the other students would have 30+ mins more to practice over the other students.