The results are in — kind of.
After an Oct. 28 Clarke school board meeting, Ryan Sweeney, Clarke activities director, put out a survey on starting a soccer program at Clarke Community High School.
During a Nov. 11 board meeting, Sweeney said he got 305 responses. However, he was only able to access 100 of the results.
Then, Sweeney sent out another survey for Clarke students, but not all of those results were in by the board meeting.
“Basically, what I’m telling you is it’s sort of incomplete at the moment,” Sweeney said. “I’ve had about 30 responses from our freshman, sophomores and juniors. I haven’t had any from the seventh- and eighth-graders because they just got theirs back today (Nov. 11).”
50-50
Sweeney discussed the results from first survey with the 100 accessible responses. He said the responses he had were “fifty-fifty.”
“Fifty percent had medium to high interest and 50 percent had low to no interest,” he said. “What I did see through the surveys that I’ve looked at, is there seems to be a higher interest in our female population, just from briefly looking at the statistics from the freshman, sophomores and juniors.”
Sweeney said he spoke with officials from Osceola Parks and Recreation department. The officials told him there were strong numbers in the community’s soccer program for youths.
Coaches?
However, there is a struggle to find enough coaches for the sport.
“They didn’t have any firm recommendations on somebody they could say would want to start the program,” Sweeney said. “I have personally talked to a handful of kids who have been interested in soccer, and they really didn’t have any direction on who could spearhead it.”
The rest of the results of the surveys from Clarke students are expected to be in soon, Sweeney said, and an update will most likely be given to the school board in December.
“I think we have interest, but, I think we need to have somebody to drive it,” Sweeney said. “We’ve had people to drive some of our other clubs, but, right now, I guess haven’t run into that person, yet.”