The purpose and goal of this petition is to gauge the interest in bringing Middle School Softball to Preston county schools. Almost all of our neighboring counties have this opportunity available to the girls in their middle schools. Having this program would provide a much needed “feeder” program to our High School team and allow it to become more competitive in the sport of softball. Currently the only options for middle school aged girls is a local recreational league and or a travel softball team. While both of these are great options neither really provides what is needed to make the High School team more competitive. Recreational leagues provide somewhere for girls to learn the basics of the game they do not provide the level of competition needed. Travel teams on the other hand provide a much higher level of competition but since most are located outside of the local area girls who choose this route do not get to play with what could potentially be the same teammates they would at the high school. 

The BOE has stated they would “poll” the schools in the upcoming school year to see what the interest would be and use that in determining if there would be sufficient interest to proceed. As a parent of a girl who loves the sport of softball and wants to represent her school and community playing it, I do not want to wait around until the new school year and see IF they follow through on “polling”. Instead I want to take the fight for this program to them. It will take time to get all the logistics (schedule, fields, coaches, etc.) in place so we need to start now. 

If you have a daughter who is going to be in grade 6-8 beginning in the 2021-2022 school year and she would love to represent her school and play an amazing sport while doing so please sign this petition. We NEED this program. It starts with us. Let’s not wait around. Please Include Name, school attending, grade level.