While working to bring middle school sports to Santa Rosa County is the cause of Dee Copeland, retired King Middle School teacher, and Kris Long, Milton High School and little league basketball coach, MHS Athletics Director Murry Rutledge said the school board has always said it can’t afford a county-wide program. He said, “It would be great, but evidently it’s not affordable. I’ve been in education 33 years. I wish we had it.”
Rutledge said when he was young he brought up the subject himself to no avail. The items he included as part of the prohibitive costs were hiring coaches and officials, uniforms, travel expenses, and CDL’s to drive the buses. He also noted these would have to be provided to each school.
Arriving at Milton High School in 1991, Rutledge said he immediately began a 7th and 8th grade basketball team. “I coached them with assistants. We put it together and played our season in the fall of the year. From August to September, we played 8 to 10 games.” He said the purpose was to get children playing in front of officials and in uniform early on, to get them acclimated to Milton’s way of doing things at the time.
From 1991 to 2000, Rutledge said as head basketball coach, the team made the playoffs 7 of 10 years and made it to the final four twice. He said current Milton Principal Tim Short took over in 2000 as head basketball coach and estimated the team made the playoffs 5 years. “We didn't have middle school athletics. I think it would be good, but if you don't have it, you do what you have to do. Get (middle school players) and play against whoever you can. Get them up in the summer and by 9th grade, go to work.”
Though there are little leagues and city leagues for sports in Santa Rosa County, Copeland said, “So many of our students don't have a lot of money to play sports at the little league. It’s very expensive. They also don't have transportation. The big key is transportation.” She suggested the sports programs at the schools would allow parents to pick them up there without making additional trips for league play.
“I’m not trying to take away from any youth organizations,” Copeland said. She described how her husband competed in football and weightlifting and so was too busy to get in trouble. She said he lost his father at an early age so the coaches mentored him. She said he attributed never getting in trouble in school to his involvement in sports.
Long, speaking before the Milton Rotary Wednesday, echoed the same sentiment of respecting youth organizations adding he’s coached little league sports in football, baseball, and basketball for the last seven years. Two benefits Long went over with the Rotary were first regarding grades. “You can’t tell a kid that makes all F’s they can’t play because they pay their money to play their sport…It falls on the parents’ responsibility…I’ve coached for seven years and we have players out there making all F’s and they came every day.” He said those same children going on to high school sports weren’t used to having to maintain grades, but middle school sports sets those standards early.
Long said of the three sports he coached, he wasn’t the best in baseball, but he had volunteers who happened to play in college who helped. “It’s great that we have on two people who want to volunteer to coach but you can't make somebody go to a training or learn how to make a kid tackle with their head up because they volunteered. (With) middle school sports you have regulations and training required. Those people are paid to coach and you're getting the best coaches. They interview just like on a high school level .”
Copeland listed several other middle school sports benefits. “Sports keeps kids healthy. Diabetes has gone up 50 percent from a lack of exercise. When you start at an early age and you teach children to do sports, you’ve opened the door to lifelong exercise.” She also said sports teaches proper competition and sportsmanship.
As far as costs, Copeland suggested starting with cheaper programs like track and field. “Some are not that expensive. You can have fund raisers and those kids will get out for those sports and sell their hearts out.”
Copeland believes if enough people exert pressure on the school board, the board will eventually look into a middle school sports program. “Support in numbers is what's needed. Saying ‘I agree with it,’ doesn't really help…This is where power in voting comes in. If you have a lot of voters and you have petitions who say, ‘We're in support of this,’ they’ll have to answer to the people. If you let it die, it will die,”
Rutledge reiterated he supports a middle school sports program but doubts seeing it funded. “Helping kids is what we’re all about, keeping them off the street, keeping busy. I’m not saying give up…I just don’t see (the school board) taking money and funding middle school sports… Would it be beneficial? I think it would be beneficial to MHS athletics, but is it practical?”
Rutledge also cited stretched teacher schedules as evidence of the school board’s financial woes. “Teachers are teaching six periods a day (with a) planning period in the morning before school. It’s a cost savings tactic. So are they going to start middle school athletics? No, it just ain’t happening.”
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This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Middle School $port$?