ARTICLE TOOLS

E-mail story

Comments

Printer friendly version

iPod friendly version

Share This

Text Size: A A A A

Chattanooga area reflects jump in national high school soccer numbers

By: Jaime Lackey
(Contact)

Included in this article

Casey Harper grew up playing baseball but jumped at the chance to become a high school soccer player last spring.

Then a senior at Sequatchie County, Harper joined one of the fastest-growing groups of high school athletes in the nation when he took the field for the Indians’ first varsity soccer team.

“I was really excited,” Harper said. “I just like the sport. I always have.”

The National Federation of State High School Associations, which governs high school athletics in the United States, reported more than 35,000 new soccer players for the 2006-07 school year.

The NFHS’s annual high school athletics participation survey showed soccer had the largest growth of any girls’ sport, adding 16,077 players. The number of boys’ soccer players increased by 19,064, the second most of any sport.

Staff Photo by Patrick Smith
Sequatchie County soccer coach Sonny Chapman speaks to his team during halftime of their game against East Ridge on Thursday. 2008 is Sequatchie County’s first year to have a soccer team.

Of the 715, 631 high school players in the United States, 11,813 came from Tennessee, and the sport continues to grow in the Chattanooga area. Sequatchie County joined Bledsoe County, Silverdale Baptist Academy and David Brainerd as schools to start programs in the past three years, and Indians assistant coach Dewayne Turner said more new high school teams may be on the horizon.

“We’re probably going to have some more programs within the (Sequatchie) Valley,” Turner said. “ Bledsoe County is in its second year, and there are several other rec programs in South Pittsburg, Jasper and Whitwell. I know they’re working to get programs in their high schools, too.”

Turner was instrumental in bringing soccer to the Dunlap high school, and with head coach Sonny Chapman he helped a coed Sequatchie County team complete a district schedule last spring. The school, which had enough players for varsity and junior varsity teams its first season, will field a girls’ team this fall.

The foundation for the high school program was laid when Turner, a Dunlap native, founded a youth league in Sequatchie County six years ago to provide opportunities for his son to continue playing soccer after the family moved back from Kentucky.

The Sequatchie Youth Soccer Association registers 100 players each fall and 150 each spring, and Turner said the demand for a high school team increased once the recreational program was established.

“We’re bringing another alternative for children who want to become involved in sports,” he said. “Not everyone wants to play basketball, baseball, football or softball. We offer another opportunity for children here who aren’t currently participating in sports. That’s our goal, to provide children with safe, fun, sporting events.”

Across the nation, youth soccer remains one of the most popular recreational and competitive sports. US Youth Soccer, the largest member of the United States Soccer Federation, has more than 3 million registered players from ages 5 to 19.

Dale Burke, executive director of the Tennessee State Soccer Association, said his Cleveland-based organization includes more than 45,000 players. Besides 5,000 adult amateurs, it registers 10,000 competitive youth players who compete at the Division I or Division II level, depending on their skill and level of interest.

The vast majority of youth players in Tennessee, however, are the 30,000 registered as strictly recreational players. Burke said his organization is looking to increase those numbers by targeting children who previously haven’t had access to the sport.

“We would like to get into more diversified groups such as Hispanics and inner-city kids,” Burke said. “We’re looking at ways we can do things that will help these children be able to play soccer, because we think in general, soccer is a very inexpensive sport to play.”

At a three-day youth camp last week founded by former Ooltewah High School player Sara Kluttz, around 200 mostly urban local children arrived at the North River Soccer Complex each day, in many cases to get their first taste of soccer.

The TSSA assisted with funding the free camp, and the Chattanooga Parks and Recreation Department helped provide transportation. Burke said he would like to see Kluttz’s camp replicated in other cities.

“We’re trying to reward people and give money to organizations that are trying to reach out to people like this,” he said. “I think it’s really important that we do that. We’re all out there trying to raise the consciousness of soccer and what it can do for these kids. We want to reach them so they can understand what the game is all about, and where it can take them.”

Like many of his former Sequatchie County soccer teammates, Harper was introduced to the sport at the recreational level. He and Turner believe the growth of youth leagues will continue to increase the number of high school players and improve the overall quality of play in the area.

“The whole valley is growing on soccer,” Harper said. “I have a lot of friends who said they wanted to play, or they wished they had come out for tryouts, so I hope the teams will just keep growing.”

Comments