A recent proposal to have a joint soccer "club" between the DuQuoin and Pinckneyville districts considered instead as a certified high school sport under "co-op" status has met with some concerns from a group of DuQuoin athletic coaches.
The club was initially formed through unanimous support by the Pinckneyville school board and was supported by four out of the five DuQuoin school board members as a viable alternative to the usual high school and junior high sports. While the club team is slated to kickoff this year, a proposal from the Perry County Soccer Association to make soccer more than just a club sport has brought a group of issues to light, in particular for the DuQuoin district.
"There's been a proposal by the Perry County Soccer Association," DuQuoin Community School District No. 300 Superintendent Gary Kelly said. "And what they're asking is for the program to go from a club sport to a recognized high school program next year. It would be a co-op between DuQuoin and Pinckneyville."
While the proposal would give the students the opportunity to participate in soccer at a more competitive level and be eligible for the accolades of competing against other local teams — such as division titles and potential all-division recognition for its players — there are a number of concerns being brought to light from the group of DuQuoin coaches, who wish to remain unnamed.
The group submitted a letter to Kelly outlining a number of issues they would like to see addressed. Among them is coordination of practice schedules and facility usage. They also have concerns that the district, which has just 404 students, isn't large enough to support the number of athletes required for another school sport without making other, already-established programs suffer in their number of student participants.
"Some of our coaches are concerned about the number of students available," Kelly said. "Also, we've been asking our other programs to do fundraising due to cutbacks from the state, so that's another concern."
In addition to the concerns from coaches, there's still a number of hurdles the districts would need to cross before this year's club soccer could be up for consideration as a co-op sport. For one, the districts would need to file for approval from the Illinois High School Association. It would also need full approval from both school boards, who despite already approving the club team, have yet to tackle the idea of soccer becoming a full-time, approved school sport.
"There's still some moving parts," Kelly said, and the district expects to further discuss the issue at their September meeting. For now, though, club soccer is a go in both DuQuoin and Pinckneyville for this year, and the soccer players will do their own fundraising for the team, separate from the fundraising the district has planned to help close the gap from the state.
"Pinckneyville said we're going as a club sport, so that's what we're doing this year," Kelly said.
Alerts Sign-up