For National Girls and Women in Sports Day, a story about a Northern Michigan parent making a push to add a girls’ soccer team to their school district, a process that’s not as easy as some may think.
A parent with Onekama Consolidated Schools said she’s reached out to the principal, the athletic director, and the superintendent but the district said they can’t do it.
She has more details on the push for a new girls’ soccer team and the challenges the proposal has faced along the way.
“I feel like they’re missing out. Maybe we’re missing the next, you know, greatest soccer player. We’ll never know if they don’t let him do it. Maybe they’re so good at soccer, they’ll get us a soccer scholarship. We’ll never know,” said
Stefanie Fessenden said she’s been campaigning since fall to bring a soccer team to their high school.
She said she coaches a travel league club in Manistee, but all of the high school kids leave and play for the Manistee’s high school team when they get older.
“All the kids moved to Manistee Sports, specifically through the school. So, then we don’t have enough kids to play the travel league,” said Fessenden.
She said she’s certified to coach and has offered and surveyed students asking if anyone would want to play on a soccer team for Onekema.
“Technically, we only need 11 on the team, but 14 to 16 is best. We have plenty of players, plenty of players,” said Fessenden.
Onekama Consolidated Schools superintendent Dan Mesyar declined our request for an on-camera interview but did talk off camera.
He said it really just comes down to numbers. Mesyar said they might have the bodies needed this year, but it has to be sustainable in the years to follow.
He said it doesn’t make sense to start a team and invest in uniforms, staff, and resources and then discontinue it in years to come.
Fessenden says she helped start up a cheerleading team a few years back and the district just added a few clubs this spring.
“You’re fighting with me about soccer, but just recently, this year, you added fishing club, you added gaming club,” said Fessenden.
Mesyar said clubs don’t compete and there wasn’t much investment to bring the cheer team back, they still had old uniforms, and they could ride the bus with athletes during games.
Fessenden said she’s willing to do what it takes but Mesyar said it’s more complicated than that.
He said being a class D-school with 95 kids, makes it hard to offer lots of sports
Simultaneously, because they might not have enough athletes to compete.
He said they have been pushing dual sports in the past few months to alleviate that problem but there’s not enough time to try for a team this year.
Mesyar he plans on talking to the parent and seeing if there’s a solution for the future.