There will be a few more sports opportunities at Dover-Eyota High School next year. The school board voted unanimously to support a new clay shooting team Monday night.
Middle school principal and activities director John Ostrowski told the board that more than 150 students answering a survey on sports opportunities expressed interest in joining a shooting team. Students joining the clay shooting team could be either boys or girls, but all would need to pass a gun safety course first. Of the boys showing interest, Ostrowski said, 75 percent already have passed a gun safety course while 51 percent of girls have done so.
“If we could get 10 percent to join,” Ostrowski said, “that’d be 15 kids.”
The team’s expenses would be covered by student participation fees, Ostrowski said. Parent volunteers would be the coaches. While the Clay Target League is not affiliated with the Minnesota State High School League, it is supported by the state league. Since gun range practice often happens on Sundays, the state league keeps a distance from the CTL.
The clay shooting team could start competing in the spring of 2016, along with another sport that fall. Ostrowski will bring further information on budgets and middle school interest regarding boys soccer to a future meeting.
Boys from Dover-Eyota now play soccer through a cooperative agreement with the Plainview-Elgin-Millville team. But that could slowly change starting in 2016 with a junior high team followed by varsity and junior varsity the following season.
Of the 421 students who took the athletics survey, Ostrowski said 48 boys expressed interest in playing soccer, 14 of whom play football. Ostrowski said boys soccer would give boys another athletics option, and would not take too many students away from football.
In addition to changes to athletics, former superintendent Bruce Klaehn gave an update on construction projects for the district. While construction on the elementary school is on track, he said, the new gym floor likely will cost an additional $31,000 over the original estimate due to moisture in the existing floor structure over which the new floor will be laid.
The board approved a motion to test the soil under the floor to better understand the root of the moisture problem but eventually to pay the additional cost for the flooring so the manufacturer will warrantee the new floor. Board chairman Ron Pagel said the cost change is well within the project’s contingency budget.
Post-Bulletin
Posted: Wednesday, July 15, 2015 7:58 am, Brian Todd