Middle school football is coming to Smyrna.
At its July 30 meeting, the Smyrna School District Board of Education voted unanimously to start up a football program at Smyrna Middle School.
The new SMS football program, which will begin practice in the fall of 2009, brings Smyrna up to speed with other Henlopen Conference schools.
“Out of all the middle schools in the Henlopen Conference, we are currently the only one who doesn’t have a middle school football program,” said Smyrna Athletic Director Bill Schultz prior to the board’s vote.
But Dave Price, a long-time coach and board president for Smyrna-Clayton Pop Warner, is worried about how the new middle school team will affect the local Pop Warner football program.
“If we don’t get enough kids, it’ll kill our program,” Price said as the school board considered the issue during the meeting.
Price pointed out that Middletown doesn’t offer middle school football, but still has a successful football team at the high school level. Instead of middle school football, Middletown has two youth programs: the M.O.T. Youth Football and Cheerleading League, and the New Castle County Football League.
Price also told the board he was upset that he wasn’t asked about the proposal.
“If it’s going to happen, I would like a little more working together,” he said.
But not everyone with ties to Pop Warner has reservations about the new middle school program.
“I love the [Pop Warner] program, but I also see a need for a middle school program,” said Karen Pritt, a teacher at SMS who is also a Pop Warner parent and board member. “I think both programs can definitely exist.”
Smyrna High head football coach Clay Lloyd, who played in Pop Warner under coach Price, said the middle school team would give local teens another opportunity to play football.
“I’m here in support of the middle school program, but not trying to diminish or put down the Pop Warner program,” Lloyd said.
Smyrna School District Superintendent Debbie Wicks thanked Price for all his work with Pop Warner over the years.
“On behalf of the Smyrna School District, I’d like to thank you, and we will work with you,” she said. “I can’t say enough how much we appreciate what you have done.”
“All those years of volunteering in the community – that’s tremendous,” added school board member Ron Eby.
In a later interview, Price said he still had a fear that the middle school program will hurt Pop Warner, but went on to say that “it can work as long as both sides work together.”
“I know they understand us,” he said. “I just hope they don’t forget about us.”
Price said that Smyrna-Clayton Pop Warner recently added a new team and is now up to four divisions of play, with a maximum of 35 kids on each team.
The age range for the local Pop Warner program is 7 to 15, and each age group has a set of weight requirements.
SMS football team to kick off in 2009
Athletic Director Bill Schultz said the school district will have about a year in advance to prepare for the middle school football team, since practices won’t begin until 2009.
He estimated that the new team would give about 40 or 50 students the opportunity to play football in middle school.
Schultz said the middle school football schedule is eight games.
For middle school football, the Henlopen Conference divides the teams into Northern and Southern divisions by geography, instead of by student population like the high schools, Schultz said.
Schultz said the SMS football team will play at a new field that will be built behind the field used by Smyrna High’s varsity field hockey team.
During the meeting, Schultz also mentioned a proposal for a new SMS fall cheerleading program along with the football team, but the board opted to vote on the two programs separately and tabled the cheerleading program.
Superintendent Debbie Wicks said the start-up costs associated with the new middle school football program will include: approximately $16,000 for protective equipment, including helmets and pads; about $8,700 for 60 uniforms; and about $2,000 for general equipment, like footballs and a helmet rack.
Wicks said the estimated annual cost of the SMS football program will be approximately $11,000, which includes coaches’ pay, transportation, reconditioning of helmets, mouth pieces and medical supplies.
