School sponsored soccer unable to garner enough support with Sigourney school board

            A motion for Sigourney CSD to create its own high school soccer program was defeated during July’s Board of Directors meeting on Wednesday, July 13, despite the efforts of students and interested community members.

            The decision to put a soccer program on the agenda comes after several of months of requests from Matt Ives of Sigourney, whose son Nick is part of a shared team between Sigourney and Mid-Prairie. Ives proposed that there was enough interest in Keokuk County to generate a school-sponsored team, citing record enrollment in Sigourney’s youth soccer program this past season, with 307 kids participating in 2017. According to the current sharing agreement with Mid-Prarie, girls cannot participate in the shared program.

            In addition, a student also surveyed 51 high school students in May of this year, simply asking if they would be interested in a program. According to the survey, 82 percent, or 42 out of 51 students said they would be interested in a soccer program at the school. Each meeting, Ives would have new data that included area schools that participated in soccer, benefits of the program and aural arguments that a soccer team would not hurt enrollment in sports such as track and golf.

Please view the July 19 edition of The News-Review for the full story.