Brian Hagberg
SHEFFIELD, Pa. – The Sheffield softball team “didn’t come close to the needed number” of participants and will not be able to field a team this season.
Warren County School District Supervisor of District-Wide Athletics and Co-Curricular Activities Rick Gignac confirmed to Your Daily Local on Tuesday that at the end of the spring sports sign-up period, only five girls had registered to play softball for the Wolverines.
“They were not even close to being able to field a team,” Gignac said. “Abraxas has focused more on track than softball and we haven’t had participants from them in a couple of years.”
Gignac said the district is working to have a solution available for those girls who still want to play by Monday’s WCSD Committee meeting. Most likely, a co-op with Warren will be proposed.
“We’re in the beginning stage of looking at that,” Gignac said. “We’re just weighing the options and what’s possible.”
The district will have to act quickly if a co-op is proposed in order to get it approved not only by the school board, but District 10, District 9 and the PIAA as well. The first day of practice for spring sports is March 7.
“We’re kind of behind the 8-ball,” Gignac said. “We have a very narrow timeframe to figure that out, and whether they’ll be able to start on March 7. But this is why we try to do registrations earlier, for when situations like this happen.”
Though nothing has been finalized, Gignac said Warren is the most likely co-op destination due to both classification and proximity.
“Warren is bottom of 4A and has some wiggle room,” Gignac said. “Classification is a big driver in (co-op decisions). Geographically speaking, Warren is the closest too.”
This is the second Sheffield girls’ team this academic year that was unable to get enough players registered to field a team. The basketball team ended up in a co-op with Warren after it only had five girls sign-up to play.
“It’s hard to put my finger on it,” Gignac said of the low sign-ups. “Looking more at the middle level and county softball programs, the number participating is really low. There are just so many things for kids to do.”
“Coaches are beating the bushes and working with kids to get them signed up,” WCSD Director of Administrative Support Services Gary Weber said.
That it was two girls’ sports unable to field teams this year isn’t necessarily indicative of a larger trend.
“Cheer is really booming, so is girls’ volleyball,” Gignac said. “The biddy programs we used to have we don’t have now as much. Enrollment numbers are down, too. A lot of commonalities there. We’d love to see more participation from our girls.”
Gignac added that once the situation with Sheffield softball is resolved, the district will reopen registration for the remaining spring teams for anyone who missed the initial cutoff date.
“Right now, numbers are pretty decent for spring,” Gignac said.
