Mathews may cancel freshman sports

Student enrollment could drop by more than 100 by 2013, the board president said.

BY JORDAN COHEN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

VIENNA—On the night that Mathews Board of Education named its new varsity head football coach, the board president warned that freshman sports may be permanently canceled due to insufficient student turnout.

“We didn’t have enough students for freshman sports and we’re on the teetering edge for participation,” said Roy Pratt III, board president. “Looking at our enrollment projections, the numbers will decline, so this could get worse.”

The district student enrollment is about 930 and Pratt said the number could drop by more than 100 by 2013.

Freshman football and basketball have been canceled the last two years, and freshmen who signed up to play in the two sports have been placed on junior varsity teams. The two freshman seasons were canceled not long before they were scheduled to begin. Pratt suggested the board not wait this time.

“It’s disruptive,” Pratt said. “We don’t want to cancel a season at the last minute rather than plan [in advance] not to have a ninth-grade season.”

Pratt suggested the board review the situation in February 2009 and make its decision then.

Despite the loss of freshman basketball, the board voted to continue the contract of freshman coach Jason Lee, who will be an assistant basketball coach for the varsity team.

Meanwhile, the board voted to hire Jack Pierson, current assistant football coach at Jackson-Milton, as its new head football coach. Pierson, a veteran football mentor, has been varsity head coach at Niles, Howland and McDonald during a career of more than 45 years.