By Nick Brockman, Messenger Sports Reporter, nbrockman@the-messenger.com
For the second consecutive year, there will be no girls varsity soccer at Dawson Springs, but athletic director Kent Workman said a 2010 return is likely.
Workman and the administration made the decision at the conclusion of the past school year to continue with a junior varsity team with just 12 athletes showing interest. Two girls, Beth Anne Dickens and Workman's daughter Emilee Workman, will play their senior seasons with the boys varsity team.
Although the Lady Panthers had enough players to field a team, Kent Workman said it still didn't seem realistic given the chance of injury.
"We felt if somebody gets injured, somebody gets sick or whatever, now you're down to no reserves and if two are out, you're pretty much in the hole," he said. "We felt like we were taking a really, really big risk if we tried to do that with those numbers...It was a really iffy situation at best, so the most logical way out was to stay with what we had."
Dawson Springs did not field a team last season following the graduation of seven seniors from the 2007 crew and instead played a JV schedule with Dickens and Emilee Workman on the boys team. Jim Hillerich will continue to coach the JV squad this fall.
Dawson Springs' last girls varsity team finished 3-12-3 and recorded a 3-3-2 mark in its last eight games.
At a small school like Dawson Springs, Workman said interest in sports can dwindle between different classes leading to disbanding of teams.
Workman and the administration made the decision at the conclusion of the past school year to continue with a junior varsity team with just 12 athletes showing interest. Two girls, Beth Anne Dickens and Workman's daughter Emilee Workman, will play their senior seasons with the boys varsity team.
Although the Lady Panthers had enough players to field a team, Kent Workman said it still didn't seem realistic given the chance of injury.
"We felt if somebody gets injured, somebody gets sick or whatever, now you're down to no reserves and if two are out, you're pretty much in the hole," he said. "We felt like we were taking a really, really big risk if we tried to do that with those numbers...It was a really iffy situation at best, so the most logical way out was to stay with what we had."
Dawson Springs did not field a team last season following the graduation of seven seniors from the 2007 crew and instead played a JV schedule with Dickens and Emilee Workman on the boys team. Jim Hillerich will continue to coach the JV squad this fall.
Dawson Springs' last girls varsity team finished 3-12-3 and recorded a 3-3-2 mark in its last eight games.
At a small school like Dawson Springs, Workman said interest in sports can dwindle between different classes leading to disbanding of teams.
"It's really odd because you go through classes in school where you have either a lot of kids out of that class play athletics or they don't," he said.
Workman said he thinks only half a dozen girls from his daughter Emilee's class participate in athletics while more than 20 eighth-graders play at least one sport.
"It goes in cycles and those cycles either really, really help us or really, really hurt us," Workman said.
Another reason soccer struggles to gain interest is the lack of a youth league in Dawson Springs.
"A lot of the problem is we don't have enough kids here that participate at the youth level to make up enough teams," Workman said. "When Emilee and Beth Anne were young, we played at Princeton."
Other soccer fans can play in Nortonville or with the Hopkins County Family YMCA's program.
Workman said he would feel comfortable having 14 or 15 players to field a team and expects those figures next season.
"If the numbers of girls come out again next year that are playing this year, we should be back to varsity status," he said. "We should have good numbers next year."
Workman said he thinks only half a dozen girls from his daughter Emilee's class participate in athletics while more than 20 eighth-graders play at least one sport.
"It goes in cycles and those cycles either really, really help us or really, really hurt us," Workman said.
Another reason soccer struggles to gain interest is the lack of a youth league in Dawson Springs.
"A lot of the problem is we don't have enough kids here that participate at the youth level to make up enough teams," Workman said. "When Emilee and Beth Anne were young, we played at Princeton."
Other soccer fans can play in Nortonville or with the Hopkins County Family YMCA's program.
Workman said he would feel comfortable having 14 or 15 players to field a team and expects those figures next season.
"If the numbers of girls come out again next year that are playing this year, we should be back to varsity status," he said. "We should have good numbers next year."
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