The Clarke soccer program officially came into being during the Oct. 9 Clarke Community School District meeting.
“It’s been talked about for a few years and so finally we said we said let’s just go with it,” athletic director Tracy Johnson said.
Johnson gave credit to teacher Fallon Reicks in leading much of the effort for a high school program, calling her the “instigator” of the process.
Around 45 athletes, boys and girls, showed up to the first meeting for the sport per Johnson.
More will be known about scheduling and which South Central Conference teams Clarke can expect to play, after a Nov. 1 meeting. The only teams not to have soccer in the SCC are Davis County and Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont. Albia currently only has a boys program.
The Iowa High School Athletic Association currently allows girls to help fill out boys teams.
“We understand that with the size of the school we are, we’ll have to have the kids split time and maybe play a couple different team sports,” Johnson said.
He noted that no coaches issued major concerns about athletes participating in mutliple sports at once.
Home games will be played on the current football field, and that the city of Osceola will allow varsity practcies on its fields as long as high school practices are done for youth participants to then go on the field by 5:30 p.m. on weekdays.
“I feel very confident we’ll have enough (atheletes) for both boys and girls,” Johnson said.
The school will soon be advertising for the coaching positions.
