School board approves girls soccer for Emery High

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

The Emery County School Board has approved girls soccer for the 2015 season. Girls soccer is played in the fall. Emery High Principal Larry Davis presented the information he has researched to the board. He said there are both pros and cons to adding the sport, but he thinks everything can be worked out to bring the opportunity to play girls soccer to Emery High. In a survey of girls eligible to play soccer for 2015-16 there were 39 girls from the high school and two junior high students to sign-up and express interest in the sport. Adding the program would also bring the number of female sports participants in line with male participants in Emery High sports. Emery High currently has 145 male participants and 118 female participants.
The girls soccer will be included in Region 15 and would be competing against other 2A schools. Schools will include, Emery, North Sevier, Manti, Gunnison, Grand and San Juan and a schedule is being worked out and available for review.
An additional expense to the school will be incurred to operate the sport. The equipment will be shared between the girls and boys soccer program. The school district will fund the head and assistant coach and provide transportation to soccer matches.
The high school is starting an inservice day in August which will provide training for all coaches and advisers which will address responsibilities, accountability and expectations.
As the school looks to hire a coach for girls soccer, they will look for those with qualifications to manage the program in addition to being able to coach student/athletes.
The football field will be available for home matches three-four a season. These matches will not conflict with football games. For practice the girls will use the softball fields. To also minimize any overuse of the football fields, the school will limit the use of the field by the county recreation youth football program.
The transportation department has indicated they don’t see any problems with transporting the soccer team to their matches and any conflicts will be resolved. The addition of girls soccer will bring the total of fall sports to six including; girls tennis, girls and boys cross country, volleyball, football and golf.
Another item of business Principal Davis discussed was to allow ninth grade girls to try out for the high school cheer squad. This was the first year, ninth grade students were required to play sports at the high school. The junior high sports teams were made up of seventh-eighth graders.
Principal Davis said this request did not mean that ninth graders who wanted to try out for the junior high cheer squads wouldn’t be able to. This would just give those girls interested in cheering at the high school level an extra year. The Emery High cheer advisors, Monica Hansen and Shawnee Snow have made the request to Principal Davis. They would like to build a program with girls interested in cheering throughout their high school careers. If there were more cheerleaders then maybe they could expand cheer performances to include a junior varsity squad. The potential for more school spirit expands with the added students involved and school support for athletic teams.
Cheer advisors said they were very proud of their cheerleaders and how they have worked hard to improve the school spirit even though they were small in numbers.
The school board approved the change to allow the ninth grade girls to try out for high school cheer.
At the school board meeting for April, John Hughes was named the principal at Cottonwood Elementary. Superintendent Kirk Sitterud said interviews were held and Principal Hughes will move into this position for the 2015-16 school year. He is currently the acting principal at the school.
The school board accepted a transfer to secondary education advisor for Jed Jensen. This position is currently held by Gwen Callahan who is retiring. Dean Stilson was approved as an assistant baseball coach at Emery High.
Superintendent Sitterud recommended a policy code change which outlines appropriate ways to memorialize teachers or students who pass away. Possible honors include, scholarships promoted by individuals, families or foundations; donations to charity in the person’s name, flowers, yearbook acknowledgement, recognition at graduation, moment of silence, dedication of a game or sporting event, candlelight vigils can be held offsite, no planting of trees or plaques on school grounds. The question of what happens if these types of memorials are already in place on school grounds was asked. There will be a year’s time for them to be removed and they can be returned to the families involved. This would include memorials at Cottonwood, Huntington and Green River. The board approved the policy change.
The board approved the negotiating teams for personnel including teachers and other employees. The board approved the amendment to the Green River High school trustland monies. They will purchase Chromebooks. The school will also arrange for training on the tablets.