Wetumpka High School principal Kyle Futral and athletic director Bear Woods want to create the best sports teams possible at the school. To do so they are studying how to better align middle school and high school athletic programs at Redland Middle School, Wetumpka Middle School and Wetumpka High School to be more competitive at the high school level while also allowing for more participation at the middle school level.
Futral and Woods want to see buy-in to the school’s acronym TRIBE.
“That it's really our identity,” Futral said. “We're tenacious, responsible, intentional, bold and exceptional. I want to just focus on that last word. We want to be a high school that is absolutely exceptional in everything.”
Futral and Woods were at a community meeting to highlight ideas of alignment but emphasized the only things that have been set in stone is programs at the two middle schools will not play each other.
“We have noticed animosity between the two when they get to the high school level,” Woods said. “It is more the parents than the kids.”
The middle schools play in a small league of middle schools and have a championship. One parent said the elimination of the game means teams may not have enough games to compete for the championship.
Woods said he was not aware of the number of games needed to compete but assured parents a plan would be devised to ensure the schools could still compete for championships.
The biggest idea in a vertical alignment of the middle schools and the high school is for one try out in each sport. Futral and Woods said it would allow the coaches to see what talent is there and develop ways to improve the talent all the way into the middle schools.
Some parents were not too comfortable with the idea.
“I was hired to be athletic director for all of Wetumpka’s schools,” Woods said.
He said tryouts have been paused in order to study the matter looking at each sport and the numbers involved.
Woods said if a student-athlete in the middle school wanted to try out for varsity or junior varsity squads they could. If they didn’t make it, they would still be considered for the middle school teams.
Woods said not all sports would be affected but said it would primarily be spring sports.
Wetumpka softball coach Daryl Otwell said one of his best hitters on this year’s team is a seventh grader.
It is also fairly common for softball pitchers to be able to play on varsity teams at a younger age. Former Wetumpka star Mya Holt started pitching in varsity games in the eighth grade.
The alignment may also work for baseball, basketball, tennis, soccer and wrestling.
Woods said if there were enough numbers, there might be a chance to create varsity, junior varsity, junior high and middle school teams.
Parents asked about access to facilities and transportation while also factoring in student class scheduling.
Currently some Redland Middle School students are transported their last period to Wetumpka High School for physical education. Others are not because PE is earlier in the day.
“That is a scheduling issue and will be worked on,” superintendent Richard Dennis said.
According to Dennis, he wants to see two different types of programs.
“I see middle school sports being participatory,” Dennis said. “I think at the high school level they need to be highly competitive.”
Dennis said this idea will need to be looked at other Elmore County schools.
“We have a feeder pattern of schools in each community,” Dennis said. “We have middle schools feeding into high schools. The difference in Wetumpka is we have two middle schools feeding into one high school.”
The next steps for Futral and Woods are to meet with all the coaches before any plan is finalized.
“The only thing we have done is paused tryouts until we figure it out,” Woods said.
