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Schools

Apple Valley's Athletic Associations Endure Growing Pains as They Add More District 196 Students

This was the first school year District 196 didn't offer middle school football, baseball or softball, and the Valley Athletic Association and Eastview Athletic Association now have to cater to kids who need a place to play.

The youth athletics programs in Apple Valley are going through some growing pains.

This past school year and summer were the first that District 196 middle schools no longer offered football, baseball or softball, due to budget cuts for 2010-11. Apple Valley’s youth athletic associations—the Valley Athletic Association and the Eastview Athletic Association—took on the task of providing to kids who would have played sports through the school in previous years. The associations operate using volunteers.

The switch saved the district $236,000 per year, most of which was coaching salaries, said Tony Taschner, communications specialist for the district.

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The old system also left the athletic associations and the middle schools competing for kids to fill out their rosters, Taschner said. This left some teams with a disproportionate amount of talent and varied roster sizes; some kids even participated in athletic association and middle school teams, Taschner said.

While the transition was relatively smooth for the football programs in the fall, there were fewer participants than the total that would have otherwise played in either the school or athletic association leagues.

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Some involved with the baseball program this summer had trouble finding enough coaches to lead the influx of new kids. Some athletic association programs also had to increase the cost of participation.

Meanwhile, athletics programs that remained in the middle schools saw participation drop this school year.

Athletic Association Sports Adjust to Changes

Now that there is one league for middle school football in Apple Valley, the teams are more balanced, Valley Middle School principal Dave McKeag said. In addition, the middle schools and the athletic associations have an equipment-sharing agreement in place, making for an easy transition for the football program, he said.

“For us, the move has been relatively seamless,” Studer said. He did say the reduced number of players overall in Apple Valley—because the option to play at school did not exist—was likely due to the cost of the athletic association programs; football participation cost $160. The VAA is able to fund about 33 football scholarships each season, he said.

But for the VAA football program alone, participation didn’t dip; Studer said there were enough additional kids to add another football team at the seventh and eighth grade levels.

Jim Brandl, the director of community education for the district, said 574 students signed up for football through the two athletics associations this past fall. In 2008, the latest figures available, 510 signed up for football with the middle schools.

Mike Germain, who oversees the traveling baseball program for the VAA, said he struggled this year to find enough volunteer coaches for the new influx of baseball players. He said if it weren’t for four volunteers who stepped up at the last minute, about 40 kids would have been without a team to play on this year.

He said he expects finding coaches will be an ongoing problem for future seasons.

Because the athletic associations have taken on a greater role, they’ve also had to increase the cost of participation, Germain said. This is problematic in areas of Apple Valley that serve low-income families, he said.

The cost to play VAA baseball falls in at $85 for community leagues and $290 for travelling leagues. Germain said those prices are relatively low compared to other associations in the area.

“We go through great pains to make sure that we maintain an affordable athletic option for kids of all economic strata,” Germain said. “But it’s hard to do that.”

Germain also said the change has disrupted the sense of community students used to gain from playing on teams with their school classmates. Because athletic association teams are organized by skill level rather than by what school the student attends, the community has lost a sense of attachment, he said.

“It’s really hard to build that community when half of your team is from Rosemount,” he said. “Yeah, you’re friends and you’re playing together, but you’re not from the same neighborhood.”

But McKeag said there has been more community support for the football program than ever before.

Previously, many parents wouldn’t be able to attend games when the school-district football program existed because they started right after school. But because the games start later under the athletic associations, more parents are able to attend, he said.

In addition, the athletic associations are now aligned with the high school teams in the area. This provides a connection between kids playing at the middle school level and the high schools, McKeag said.

“The minute we went to the association-backed football program, I saw a lot more community support for football in this building than I have before,” McKeag said.

Participation Decreases for Remaining Middle School Sports

Meanwhile, the programs that didn’t make the switch to being run by the athletic associations have suffered a dip in participation.

The district doubled the fees for its remaining athletics programs to $100 for this school year, and the district no longer offers bus service after activities; McKeag said these factors contributed to a 20 percent districtwide decrease in participation in sports like volleyball and tennis.

“I think because of the economic times, some families decided to not spend that extra money for the athletic programs here,” McKeag said.

But for the struggles the middle schools and some athletic association programs have faced this year, McKeag said he’s happy the district found a solution that “put the kids above everything else.”

“That was pretty powerful to watch,” McKeag said. “And to see all of these people that are normally rivals on the football field, come together … it was really gratifying as an educator.”

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