CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Clarksville-Montgomery County School System has made tremendous strides when it comes to expanding middle school athletics, including the return to middle school football and cheerleading this fall.
Just recently, CMCSS gave student-athletes at the middle school level the opportunity to participate in volleyball and cross country, and the school system has committed to implement middle school football and cheerleading for the 2023-24 school year.
Impact on the kids
The most important reason for returning to middle school sports is the impact it can have on the kids, said John Miller, district programs and activities coordinator, who has played a pivotal role in the development of middle school athletics.
“I think the importance and the value of more middle school sports is the fact that it helps with the total education of the child,” Miller told Clarksville Now. “Everything plays a part in our role of educating children and students; whether it’s academics, physical, social, emotional, etc. I believe athletics and having team sports plays a big part in that. We haven’t had too many school-sponsored team sports in our middle schools for several years. The only one we had for several decades was basketball.
“As a district, we felt it was important this last couple of years to increase the number of school-sponsored sports that we have so that we’re giving kids more opportunities to develop in all phases of their lives. Increasing the number of sports is the biggest thing that we’re trying to achieve here.”
Impact on local sports
A side benefit from developing the middle school program is that it will help prepare student-athletes to compete at the high school level.
“I think we’ve always seen it in basketball, but we’re also seeing it with our volleyball and cross-country programs,” said Miller. “Volleyball and cross country are seeing a rise in numbers of student-athletes at the high school level due to the development the last three to four years of the middle school athletics programs. So, the hope is that bringing football into the schools at the middle school level will help the high schools as well.”
Clarksville had such a football program until the 1980–81 school year. That’s when the junior high model – including the former Greenwood Junior High School and New Providence Junior High School – converted to a middle school model. While funding for the basketball program survived the transition, football and several other sports did not.
Miller’s father, Johnny Miller Sr., pushed for years to get football back in the middle schools, including in 1988 during his tenure as schools director, but the funding wasn’t there, according to Leaf-Chronicle archives.
The lack of middle school football is one reason why, John Miller said, Montgomery County high schools have been “fighting an uphill battle” in statewide football competition.
“We had Clarksville Junior Pro, which for a number of years did a really good job of working with us and having a middle school league, but I think having it in the school is different. We’ll have the ability to hold the kids accountable for their grades, behavior and all of those aspects, which I think will help develop them and our high school programs.
“Our high school football teams have been competitive, but on an inconsistent basis. We’ll have a really good set of teams each year that are competitive throughout the season and some move on to the second and third round of the playoffs, but overall, it has been inconsistent,” said Miller.
“Which leads me to believe that having these new programs in place will help us develop some good consistency in our competitiveness for all of our schools, not just one or two, but for all of them. The goal will be to see year in and year out that we’re competitive with other surrounding counties in the mid-state.”
Issues to overcome
There’s still a lot of work to be done. Miller said that volleyball and cross country were both relatively simple to set up due to the resources at their disposal. Football, on the other hand, is more complex.
“We wanted to bring football into middle schools two years ago,” said Miller. “But COVID hit, and we got off track. That’s why it’s just coming around. It’s been problematic, but I believe it’s worth the fight and worth battling the issues.”
Unlike cross country and volleyball, football requires large, complex practice and playing facilities, plus locker rooms and storage facilities. For games, the middle schools can use high school fields, but other problems are still there.
“We’re having to get storage buildings to place at the middle schools for the equipment. Meanwhile, we’re still dealing with the issue of where the students are going to change, so they can be ready to practice after school,” said Miller.
“So, there are some hurdles to overcome with putting football in, but hey it’s worth it to me. It’s for the kids, it’s an activity that involves more students than any other activity in our schools. I think in the process we’ll reach a lot of kids and bring cheerleading in with that because it just makes sense.”
What’s next
Miller said CMCSS has received money to buy equipment for middle school football in this school year’s budget.
This next year’s budget, he hopes to receive funding for:
- Coaching supplements for a head football coach and two assistant coaches.
- Supplements for assistant coaches for the sports they have in place already.
- Money to hire athletic trainers and an assistant athletic director.
There has been brief discussions about other possible additions to middle school athletic programs, including wrestling, track and field, baseball, softball, and soccer.
No decisions will be made until the middle school football and cheerleading programs are set up, and after they’ve done extensive research.