CRSD studying possible pee-wee football program this year

By Patrick Massey

The Cossatot River School District will host an interest meeting Thursday evening to discuss the possibility of forming a peewee football team ahead of the 2023-2024 school year.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 26 at the Cossatot River High School cafeteria. Superintendent Tyler Broyles said the idea of the meeting is to offer an informal opportunity for Cossatot River parents and students to share their interest in launching a pee-wee football program and to gather more information on the process.

“We’re starting our football and volleyball programs later this year, but pee-wee football, as with any sport, is so crucial to the success of your older teams,” Broyles explained. “We’re going to hold this meeting to gauge that interest and get an idea of how a pee-wee team might go for the district.”

Broyles said the district’s goal is to create a pee-wee football program for Cossatot River students in grades three through six. The program would kick off alongside the junior varsity program at the start of the 2023-2024 school year.

Coach Dakota Barrett will host Thursday’s meeting to provide some general information on launching the pee-wee football program and he’ll be available to answer any questions from those in attendance.

Another purpose of the meeting is to gather names of anyone interested in coaching a pee-wee football team for the next, and inaugural, season at Cossatot River School District.

“The upcoming third through six graders are invited to attend along with anyone else interested in being part of the program,” Broyles said. “It’ll be an informal event, and hopefully we can get a number together of who’s interested. Coach Barrett and our athletic director have been working on this just to be able to answer some questions about what pee-wee football might look like, what league we’ll be in, what uniforms might look like, etc.”

Broyles said older students interested in the district’s junior high football program are also invited to attend and ask questions.

Cossatot River School District announced last year its plan to launch a football and volleyball program beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.

“We got quite a bit of excitement early on,” Broyles said. “Just for junior high foot- ball alone, we had over 50 boys in grades seven and eight sign up in interest. That’s a great start.”

Broyles added that the volleyball program had between 70-80 girls express their interest in joining the junior high team.

“That’s just interest and you can expect some of that to taper off, but to have numbers like that, that’s a big plus,” he said.

Broyles said the district is launching into the fundamental aspects of creating a new sports program, such as ordering uniforms, building schedules, finding schools to play and building more interest.

“We’re going to give it our best shot and see how it goes,” he explained. “We’re going to see if it’s viable and try to give our students even more opportunities in the district.”

Cossatot River is the only Class 3A school in its conference without a football team, and one of only a couple of teams without a volleyball program. It is also the third-largest school in the conference.