Armstrong Sr. High Principal James Rummel addressed the ASD Board last Thursday about adding a junior high baseball/softball team in the spring of 2019.
Armstrong Senior High School Principal James Rummel was at the Armstrong School District (ASD) caucus meeting last Thursday to discuss the possibility of adding a junior high baseball/softball team next spring.
“Currently, five out of six teams in our baseball section have junior high baseball and all seven teams we go up against have junior high softball. I want to give our kids every opportunity to compete on an equal level,” he said.
“Costs would be minimal. It wasn’t budgeted, but the costs would only be transportation and umpires. We can use creative scheduling by scheduling teams close to you and Saturday double-headers are very common for cost savings. The coach would be volunteer for both programs this year to get the program underway.”
Rummel said he did not prepare a cost breakdown, and Superintendent Chris DeVivo asked for him to prepare it so the board had specific numbers to consider. Rummel verbally estimated $2,000 for both programs for transportation, $1,000 for umpires, and $500 for supplies.
“Normally every child has their own bat and helmet. It’s not like the old days where we had to provide everything.
ASD Director Doug Smith asked about coaching staff. Rummel responded that there would be at least one per team.
“When you are looking at volunteers, I am confident we have some people on staff that would be interested in doing that.”
Rummel said that currently the only spring sport offered for the boys is track and field that begun two years ago.
“If it takes off, then we will be able to budget it in the athletic budget for the 2019-20 school year. And I think it will. We are confident of that.”
Rummel said the team would consist of seventh and eighth graders, but the ninth graders could decide if they want to play on the junior high or varsity team.
“Ninth graders can play either way, but they can’t go back and forth. They have to declare (which team they are playing for) before hand. An ideal team is around 20, but I am expecting more than that.”
Rummel feels that a junior high team would not hurt existing community organizations that offer programs.
“They usually work hand in hand. We already run into that with our high school program. Years ago, they started later. But now they do start early. Our (senior high) kids play school first, but they also play in (other community leagues) as well. So I don’t see any ill effect on that at all. We have teams like the Palomino,or Legion baseball and kids do both. It hasn’t been a problem at all.”
The Board requested a formal proposal from Rummel and said it would be considered in their November public meeting.