The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

There must be some serious interest in starting a soccer program at Orangefield High School when nearly 40 students show up for a meeting at 7:30 in the morning.

Josh Smalley, athletic director at OHS, said the purposed of the meeting was to present material to the Orangefield ISD Board of Trustees for them to decide if they want to start a soccer program from scratch. There has never been a soccer team at OHS and they would be joining their fellow Orange County schools of Vidor, Little Cypress-Mauriceville and Bridge City in competition if approved.

“They (the school board) will weigh the cost of everything. It's a financial process,” Smalley said.

One possibility is to do fund-raisers to get the program off the ground.

With 20 to 25 boys playing, there wouldn't be enough for both a Varsity squad and a Junior Varsity squad. Two new teachers- a boys coach and a girls coach- would probably have to be hired since there isn't currently a soccer coaching staff.

Smalley said some in the community have been approaching trustees about starting a team. In addition to measuring students' interest, he also has to see if soccer would conflict with other sports they play.

Smalley said there are many kids in the Orangefield community who play soccer, some in select leagues.