By Jadynne Brady
Editor-in-Chief
The Jag
Junior Emma Dragon believes that there are not enough girls involved with sports.
“I think getting girls more involved in sports in general is really important,” Dragon says.
She says that it allows girls to believe in themselves, which is what she hopes will happen when girls join sports.
“I think it’s very important [to have girls involved with sports],” she says. “I hope that girls believe in themselves and put themselves out there.”
So, when Dragon heard that girls’ flag football was becoming a varsity sport next year, naturally she was excited.
“I’m really excited to just play games against other schools because other schools had flag football teams for girls already, so just getting us involved and putting us out there again [is exciting],” she says.
Girls flag football and boys volleyball have both been approved by the Missouri State High School Activities Association [MSHSAA] and the Blue Springs School District [BSSD] as varsity sports for the upcoming year.
The BSSD made the decision to make these lettering sports next year. At the moment, boys volleyball is a championship sport under MSHSAA, as it has at least 50 schools that are registered to have it. Girls flag football is considered an “emerging sport” as they have fewer than 50 schools registered, but it is projected to have enough by next year.
Head coaches for each sport have been named, with counselor Tracy Kempf coaching boys volleyball and football coach Alan Wilmes coaching girls flag football. Both will also be spring sports.
There was an increase in interest from the student body in the two sports, which is a big reason that Activities Director James Cain attributed to the start-up of the sports.
“It started slowly but surely, but the amount of interest, especially in boys’ volleyball the last couple years, has been pretty heavy,” he says. “We’ve all done a lot of work on trying to get this implemented to give so many opportunities for kids that may not be playing sports.”
A key contributor and advocate for this process was counselor Tracy Kempf, who did research of her own.
“I have been asking for it for two years; and when I received our notes from the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee that we didn’t have enough interest for boys volleyball program, I did some detective work,” Kempf says. “I researched all of the programs across the state, which schools in our area had teams, and I started talking to boys interested in the sport who had been advocating for boys volleyball for several years.”
Cain found that “[Kempf] was a great help and a great resource” in this process.
Currently, South has a club for both sports, with English teacher and varsity softball coach Kristi Williams coaching girls flag football and Kempf coaching boys volleyball.
The difference between a sports club and a varsity sport “really comes down to MSHSAA again.” Cain says. If the sport is approved by MSHSAA, only then can the club sport become a varsity sport. As the sports weren’t approved to be a varsity sport under MSHSAA at this time, that means that South could only have a club and not compete against other schools.
Kempf also did a survey at the beginning of the year to see who was interested in girls flag football and boys volleyball.
“After doing that interest form, we found out that, oh, there’s a need for this,” says Willaims.
That’s what triggered both of the club’s start-ups.
“While I was pushing for this to be a sport,” Kempf says, “I started the boys volleyball club in late October to show interest in the program. Forty-eight boys registered to attend the first club meeting on October 31st, and over half returned permissions slips to participate in the club.”
Some of the current club members of both sports, including junior Allison Holler, who is currently in the girls’ flag football club and plans to try out for the sport next year, finds that more involvement is needed.
“I think it’s really important sport [flag football], and I think getting girls more involved in sports in general is really important,” Holler says.
Junior Daniel Lam, who plays club both outside and at South and plans to try out for boys volleyball, agrees.
“It starts inclusivity, especially now with girls flag football so it just [gives] everyone a sport they like to play now, rather than playing a generic sport that we don’t have.” he says.
Cain said he thinks these sports will help more students grow as people.
“[To] face the adversity that sports brings, the triumphs, the wins, the losses, learning how to deal, with all of that, plus being a part of a team, where you have to work together, I think it’s so good for our students to have opportunity to do that,” Cain says.
If you are interested in participating in either of these sports, be aware of announcements regarding camps and workouts as the school year ends.
“There’ll be a lot of opportunities probably in the summer for camps and in the fall for workouts and preseason conditioning and those types of things for both of those sports,” Cain says.
