Kicking It Off: Shawnee Mission School Districts will offer soccer next year at the middle schools and football the following year to add variety to their sports

The Shawnee Mission School District will add boys and girls soccer to their middle schools in the spring of next year, and then football in the fall of 2024.

The Board of Education voted 6-0 on the additions after District Director of Athletics and Activities Kent Glaser presented it at the March 20 board meeting.

“Every year, we’ve been trying to bring [new opportunities] along,” Glaser said. “And then this was just the time that we were able to accelerate that and offer some additional sports.”

By expanding sports options, SMSD hopes to provide students with more extracurricular activities and compete with nearby districts, according to Glaser. Once implemented, all six school districts in Johnson County will offer football, but SMSD will be the first to offer soccer too.

“We have opportunities for our students to be involved in a variety of activities, but in comparison to some of our local middle schools in the area, or across the state, we didn’t have the same opportunities,” Glaser said. “So we wanted to be able to make sure that we were providing something comparable to other middle school students in the area.”

After seeing the relationships between sports that both Indian Hills and East offer, Vice Principal and Athletic Director of Indian Hills Middle School Tara Mahoney expects the addition of the sports to build a stronger connection between middle and high school athletic programs as students can play the sports with their potential, high-school teammates earlier.

“[We want] to encourage students to be active in their school community,” Mahoney said. “Being able to build those relationships, from middle school to high school — from what I’ve seen so far here at Indian Hills, just with those connections — that’s been a really great growth area for us that we’ve been able to celebrate.”

Varsity football player and junior Joey Hoffman sees the addition as having potential to improve football at East. Their competitors have had the advantage of more play time by their districts providing football for middle schoolers, so he’s excited for the sport to now be offered at Indian Hills.

“I think it’s going to improve the entire district’s football programs,” Hoffman said. “All of the other Olathe [and] Blue Valley schools have had [middle school football] and they’ve had much more success in the playoffs compared to Shawnee Mission schools.”

Head football coach Mark Simoneau is excited for football to be introduced in middle school, where athletes can train to better prepare for the high school team.

“Any time you have an extra year of plan or participation in a sport, it will be an added value,” Simoneau said. “So now, instead of only playing four years of football, they’ll have the opportunity to play five, which they’ll get more experience.”

As many middle school athletes already compete in these sports in out-of-school clubs, the district saw enough interest to offer them at school, according to Mahoney. While it will conflict with club seasons for some students, it will also provide an easier, cheaper opportunity to play, as well as get students more involved with their school.

“I think it’ll help bring connection for our middle school students to their schools, and build that pride,” Glaser said. “Studies show that when you’re involved, you’re more connected to the school, and that connects directly to academic achievement.”

The National Education Longitudinal Study looked at students’ school success depending on if they participated in extracurriculars, finding that 30.6% of those participating had a GPA over a 3.0, while 10.8% of those who weren’t involved in extracurriculars did.

Adding to the growing tie from middle school and high school sports, there is likely to be overlap between middle school and high school coaches, according to Mahoney. Several of Indian Hills’ teachers already coach sports at East. East’s Athletic Director Ryan Johnson would like to see collaboration between the middle and high school programs so they both can improve.

“The best case scenario is where high school coaches and middle school coaches work together on program philosophies and building the program from the middle school up,” Johnson said. “Maybe coaches [would work] together over the summer to implement team tactics.”

At the moment, SMSD middle schools only offer sports in the fall and winter, so the inclusion of soccer will also create a new sports season in the spring open to all students at the middle schools. As there isn’t soccer at other districts, SMSD’s middle schools will solely compete against each other in a five-game series spanning five weeks.

“I always wanted [soccer] when I was [in middle school],” varsity soccer player and senior Reese Birch said. “I thought it would be super cool because we have basketball and a lot of other sports, and then spring there was kind of nothing.”

Football will only be open to eighth graders during the fall. Without enough time to order equipment and organize the season before the next school year, football will not be introduced to middle schools until the 2024-2025 school year.

Since the announcement of the athletic addition, Mahoney has already received excited emails from parents and has been stopped in the halls by students happy about the change.

“It hasn’t even happened yet, and the buzz is incredible,” Mahoney said. “When you think about the impact that you want to be able to provide students from an educator perspective, engaging them, exciting them and empowering them in a learning environment…that’s what we want. It was so great to know that we hit the mark, and now it’s time to make sure we fulfill those promises in the same way.”