Santa Rosa County is the only onein the tri-county area without a wide use of middle school sports teams.
The district has started to receive questionsfrom area residents as to why that isand what can be done to offer the possibility to middle schoolers moving forward.
The district has started to take steps to see what possibilities exist surrounding middle school sports, but there are no concrete plans,said Tonya Shepherd, the Santa Rosa County District Schoolspublic information officer and family and community outreach officer, in a statement to the News Journal.
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"Santa Rosa District Schools has a rich tradition of community collaboration, and this also rings true with local community youth sports associations. The district completed a cost-analysis related to the creation of middle school sports in previous years," Shepherd said in the statement, adding the district will include community stakeholders in potential discussions moving forward.
Santa Rosa County looks at middle school sports possibility
Stephanie Yelton, the University of West Florida women's basketball coach, lives in Santa Rosa Countyand is one of the figures pushing the district to offer athletics to middle schoolers.
"We're missing an opportunity for our kids to be involved in something special, and something associated with their schools to build school spirit, community spirit," Yelton said. "But to also build some young people into a stronger community as they get older and graduate from high school."
Yelton has her children involved in the Pensacola Mighty Titans—a Pensacola-based basketball program that provides camps, skill development,recreation leagues and more —but said as the middle school season gears up in the fall in Escambia County, that leaves some Santa Rosa County kids without a team.
David Clark, a parent to Gulf Breeze Middle School student, said he has gone to the district as recently as last year to learn why the programs do not exist in the county. He said he was told that with such a tight budget, any additional funding would go to educational opportunities instead of sports.
Looking at the school district's budget for 2023, about $108,000 has been budgeted for school athletic allocation.
Escambia County's school districtimplemented volleyball in 2016, and former Superintendent Malcolm Thomas said then that the startup cost for that sport totaled about $40,000.
Clark, speaking to the importance of investing in sports, said, "We'd love our kids to have the opportunity to have a well-rounded middle school experience as opposed to what's offered now."
Looking back at attempts to get middle school sports in Santa Rosa County
In 2015, Santa Rosa County resident Kris Long started an online petition for theSanta Rosa County School Boardto implement middle school sports for the 2016-2017 school year, which ultimately went nowhere.
Long created the online petition to bring awareness to the school board and former Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick that a significant number of parents in the county support middle school sports, citing the academic and social benefits to students. He collected 940 signatures, but after speaking to Wyrosdick, he learned the district is too financially strapped to pursue middle-school athletics.
Benny Washington, the head coach with the Mighty Titans program, said Santa Rosa County may perform well academically, but there always improvement areas.
"One (area to improve) is the extracurricular activities for kids. And that extracurricular could be music, sports, etc.," Washington said. "The reason we say sports is because a lot of kids get out of school at 1or 2o'clock. The parents might not get home until 5or 6. So those kids are there by themselves."
Washington stressed having those extracurricular programs helps keep kids safe and out of trouble, adding it teaches kids core values like sportsmanship, teamwork, accountability and responsibility.
Washington also attributed sports, and coaches, to helping shape his own life.
"I was one of those kids that was brought up with six siblings and no father in the household. And it was because coaches took time with me, and they had me doing the tutoring and they had us going to basketball — that was my sport of choice — that kept me out of trouble," Washington said.
As Santa Rosa's population continues to grow and attract new residents from outside of Florida, Clark said the changing demographics could alter the expectation of the middle school sports with people having come to expect it in other parts of the country.
"I think we can really figure it out and make it cost-effective and make it happen," Yelton said.
