New sporting options abundant in PCSD 1

Posted 6/16/22

Six new sporting opportunities were passed by the Park County School District 1 Board of Trustees on Tuesday, as sports from sixth grade through high school were approved.

Starting at the high …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

New sporting options abundant in PCSD 1

Posted

Six new sporting opportunities were passed by the Park County School District 1 Board of Trustees on Tuesday, as sports from sixth grade through high school were approved.

Starting at the high school level, girls high school wrestling was approved following the approval by the Wyoming High School Activities Association (WHSAA) to make the sport formally sanctioned in April.

Powell has had a strong history of girls on the wrestling team, and had one wrestler on the team this past season. Yessenia Teague is set to head into her senior year.

In addition to the approval of girls’ wrestling, the board also approved the creation of an indoor track team.

Four members of the public including junior Brynn Hillman and distance coach Tracy McArthur came forward to speak in support of the creation of a program before the board voted.

PCSD 1 Superintendent Jay Curtis said that Hillman spearheaded the effort when she initially sent him a letter concerning the creation of a team in order to offer more opportunities for athletes in the winter.

Ever since indoor track’s introduction in Wyoming in 2006, Powell athletes have competed with a combination of both Cody and Lovell, and had more than 20 athletes compete with Lovell this past season.

Figures provided to the board determined it would not come at a significant cost to the district, and would give additional options to students wishing to compete over the winter months.

Indoor track has been a one-class system since its inception, but is set to move to a two-class system when the next reclassification cycle occurs — the proposal for a multiclass system was approved by the WHSAA in November.

Heading down to the middle school level, the Cubs boys and girls soccer teams were recognized as an official sport.

The programs had been competing as a club sport over the past three years, and were formally approved, as the teams have seen more than 40 kids combined join the program each year.

Sixth graders will be able to participate, beginning next year, in selected sports.

Both boys and girls will be able to participate in cross country, wrestling and cheerleading.

Sixth grade sports were initially denied participation 10 years ago when the board had concerns of piling additional responsibility onto sixth graders as they transition into middle school.

These sports were selected because they are a more individual focused sport, and more team-centric sports would have added additional resources that would have made it difficult to create more teams.

This left sports like swimming, basketball, track and field, football and volleyball out of the resolution as a result.

PCSD 1 is the only 3A school that did not offer sixth grade wrestling prior to its approval.

Comments