Mike Waak, Cedrick Biteghe Bi Ndong, and Carlos Saenz got up in front of the West Point-Beemer School Board at Monday night’s meeting held in the Media Center and presented the idea of potentially adding soccer as a varsity sport at the school. Waak says the sport is growing and evolving in the school.
Waak says they’re looking at the 2027-2028 school year at the earliest for having soccer.
Waak says soccer would be another activity students could get involved in if offered.
Waak added that schools in similar size to West Point-Beemer have implemented soccer.
Biteghe Bi Ndong says soccer is becoming popular in West Point.
Biteghe Bi Ndong has been very active with soccer in the community as he has been very involved with the sport through the Optimist Program.
Saenz says the Demographics in West Point are favorable for adding soccer.
Saenz says at South Sioux City they saw more kids going to College because of soccer as it served as a resource or educational tool for higher education.
Saenz says interest in the sport has trickled all the way down to the youth level.
Saenz says there were around 70-80 kids the first year and there are 140 right now, and he expects that number to go up even more next year.
Superintendent DJ Weddle commented on the matter following the meeting, saying he was very appreciative of and liked what they had to say to the board.
Weddle says Clark Enersen will be doing a second site evaluation focused heavily on redoing the press box at the Football Field and making it larger as it is starting to slant at the back side.
Many schools in Nebraska have experienced a Canvas Data Breach, including West Point-Beemer. Weddle says he’s unsure at this time of how serious the breach was, but there are concerns moving forward.
Weddle also spoke with KTIC News about some grants the school district has received, including one from the Dinklage Foundation.
Weddle says the West Point-Beemer Foundation also kicked in $10,000 for the Dinklage Grant.
The board will next meet on Monday, June 8th at 6:30 p.m.