The Washougal School District is set to expand its middle-school athletic program.
Southwest Washington Middle School League (SWMSL) administrators have approved a proposal to immediately allow sixth-graders to compete in cross country and wrestling, Canyon Creek Middle School principal Jake Healea told Washougal School Board members during an Aug. 8 meeting.
“Our coaches will be on board with that, and we anticipate that our families will be really excited about that, especially after a time when we were talking about (having to possibly eliminate middle-school) sports (altogether), and people were really concerned about that,” Healea said. “Now we’re talking about potentially adding more sports, which gets kids excited about being part of their school and builds a pipeline towards high school.”
Previously, the SWMSL only allowed seventh- and eighth-grade students to compete in football, cross country, volleyball, boys basketball, girls basketball, wrestling, knowledge bowl, and track and field.
“There’s some really good coaches who are putting in a lot of time, and I know they’re going to be excited to see some of their sports expand to sixth grade because they’re always looking to recruit more kids and get more people interested in (athletics), especially wrestling and cross country,” Washougal School Board president Cory Chase said during the meeting.
“It’s exciting for me to hear that we’re expanding some of our programs because it’s a goal of ours to increase participation, not just in sports, but activities, the arts, and all of those things, to get kids engaged in something outside of their regular school day,” he continued. “We know it’s extremely important. This gives those kids at the sixth-grade level a chance to be a part of something and start feeling school pride. They’re already engaged, they’re already a Husky or a Cougar, and they’re looking to be a Panther. It’s good to have that.”