Commentary: Building for the future with Middle School athletics
Adding soccer and basketball for 6th thru 8th graders a great decision by Salem-Keizer
After conducting a series of pilot sports programs this winter and spring for Salem-Keizer Middle Schoolers, District Athletics/Activities Director Lara Tiffin was given the go ahead to establish basketball and soccer for boys and girls at all eleven middle schools next year.
This story has gotten many “reads” on this website, and I am not surprised, but very pleased. Why? The decision to hire Lara Tiffin to oversee athletics district wide is quickly beginning to bear fruit in terms of enthusiasm for organized sports at the middle school level. Tiffin—a former teacher, principal, and athletic director—is the perfect leader for the District’s efforts to make available more extracurricular options at the middle school level in particular.
Football, volleyball, wrestling, and track had been the only MS athletic opportunities for the past several decades. Basketball returns after being gone from middle schools for nearly 30 years, while soccer participation was limited to club programs who used school fields on weekends. Middle School basketball players had taken part instead in some outside hoops programs such as Skyball, which were established after the district dropped the sport from their funding.
The district details are still being finalized, but plans are to have four total (2 boys and girls) basketball teams and soccer teams at each middle school in Salem-Keizer. Schedules for each new sport will be worked out over the summer.
It was an easy call for district officials to make, after having nearly 400 basketballers and 500 soccer players take part in the pilot programs offered for each sport this winter and spring. Parental attendance at the games also reflected in the interest that families have to school-based athletics.
This sports expansion decision by the district marks a small, but significant milestone for Salem-Keizer students, many of whom have after-school time with no adult supervision. Their “current” activities include use of internet apps like tick-tock, Instagram, or youTube; and playing video games, or otherwise “hanging out” with some of their peers. It is those so-called alone times that also create problems such as crime, and even teen pregnancy. Just adding a couple of sports will not make any of these unsupervised teen issues disappear, but the decision should help with some reductions.
Tiffin’s push for expanded athletic and activity offerings includes her very oft-quoted mission which says in part that school sports and activities exist to “provide healthy opportunities for middle school students to engage with their peers, connect with their schools, develop leadership skills, and build character is a major goal of mine.”
In other words, sports and activities should help kids interact with each other in a positive sense, connect with their schools in a way that could be described as “school spirit,” developing leadership skills and character with rules and guidelines that require consistent school attendance and completion of course work, civil behavior in dealing with others, and learning to model those skills and those character traits for students who follow behind them.
I know dozens of students from my era who credited sports with keeping them at school, focusing them on being successful in all parts of their lives, and encouraging them to become leaders. Similar stories can be found from former athletes in the years that have preceded and followed my era from fifty years before.
School sports are the best way to develop the character of kids. The athletes themselves maintain close ties with fellow students and their coaches, as opposed to an outside competitive program that tends to have those ties broken after completion of a season.
That connection to other kids on campus is also a key to developing school spirit. Being able to chat with those athletes as friends, not just idols, is important to growing the ties of familiarity and friendship between members of the student body. The enthusiasm can be contagious.
I had one year at Judson Jr. High before our family moved, putting me at Leslie Jr. High—home of the Lions—for two years. Leslie Jr. High in 1972-73 and 1973-74 had a great, inclusive student body with caring staff and student leaders, and that atmosphere encouraged kids to stay involved in activities on a campus-wide basis.
I was a football player and a track athlete. Sadly, I was a bit short to play basketball, and after being cut, decided I could serve as a student manager for the JV “Blues” squad. I befriended many other kids that I might have never talked to due to my decision to be a manager. And on it goes.
The vision of school district officials and staff and volunteers is one that encourages success for students, no matter who they are, what they look like, or how athletic they may be. It will take time to obtain the “ideal environment” at our middle schools, but expanded sports will help not only student success at the middle school level, but also high school down the road.
Aside from the environmental aspect—where unity, not divisiveness should be the rule—the athletics contribution to schools can also include the following:
1. Physical fitness improvement. Numbers from the National Survey of Children's Health show that during the 2020-21 school year, 17 percent of kids ages 10-17 were characterized as obese. And like many of their parents, most kids were just overweight generally in that category. This was at the end of the COVID pandemic, and some activity has returned to our world—but all in all, we as a society are less active than we were prior to COVID 19.
The National Federation of High Schools had a report published in 2020 that repeats the oft-shared evidence showing athletics helps maintain a better level of fitness for kids who took part in organized sports. The NFHS report states that:
“Regardless of the sport, students who participate in athletics are more likely to continue to exercise for a healthy body and mind. Furthermore, some athletes will continue to participate in physical activities not only to find the physical and mental benefits, but also to build relationships with others by becoming part of a local recreation team and a part of a larger community.”
Indeed. I was no star athlete, but played some actual flag football for several seasons after high school, took part in church league basketball, and played slow-pitch softball for about 30 years. I stepped down to help coach my youngest daughter’s softball squad, but maintained a mostly healthy physique. At age 63, that physique has gone a bit soft, but I credit the sports activity with keeping me healthier than some others my same age.
“Regardless of the sport, students who participate in athletics are more likely to continue to exercise for a healthy body and mind.”
One final thought about the benefit of more sports in the middle schools—and it may sound a bit shallow, but still is important to note that…
2. A strong middle school sports program helps high school athletics be more successful.
Salem-Keizer does have its share of championship trophies in many sports. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, teams from around the district brought home team championship trophies—ten in total during the time frame from 1996 to 2009:
1996 South Salem Boys basketball; 1997 McNary football; 1997 Sprague Boys Tennis 1999 McNary Baseball—second in state*; 2000 Sprague football—second in state*; 2001 McNary football; 2003 Sprague Softball; 2004 Sprague Football; 2005 Sprague Baseball; 2005 South Salem Boys basketball; 2006 West Salem Baseball—second place; 2006-07-09 Sprague Boys Tennis.
The championship numbers have dipped in some sports categories since then, but there are still state crowns for Track and Field for the North Salem girls (2019) and West Salem boys (2018). And McKay’s Boys Soccer Team brought home the 2022 5A Boys Soccer Title. Sports aren’t just about winning championships, but the effort put into trying to reach that goal. This year, West’s boys finished third in the track team standings—thanks to a variety of strong athlete performances. It isn’t the destination, but the journey. It is all about lessons we will all face sometime in life—and sports can provide some perspective unlike any other activity. But winning some trophies also teach kids that hard work can produce rewards.
This story/commentary was supposed to be about efforts to develop kids and their influence on their surroundings—cultivation of school spirit, as well as pride in belonging to something bigger than yourself, and a growth in team unity that defies a solid explanation—more a feeling of connectiveness that comes from working together. It is a mouthful, but is also simple to explain at the same time.
Middle Schools are the perfect place to begin learning these life lessons. And additional sports opportunities give our young teens and tweens many chances to learn about winning, losing and all the elements involved in being successful.
The head coach of the Stephens Boys’ basketball team during the pilot program—Jamer Silva Altamirano—told me after the pilot season was over in March, that despite going just 1-7 that “it never fazed the kids!”
“Almost every game we played, the score was tight going into the last 5 minutes.”
He says he and his assistant coach have already planned out remedies for their team’s late game weaknesses, and based on follow-up contact made with the players, there should be a good number of seventh graders to sign up. Good news to be sure.
Go get ‘em, kids!
When you have just a long list like the one I shared, one sometimes gets dropped in the writing. Added in! Thanks for the catch, Bill.
I couldn’t agree with you more about middle school sports is a way to learn team work and keep students active in a positive way.