Five years ago, San Diego Unified’s middle school sports program didn’t exist. Since its creation, the program has received almost universal praise from teachers, parents and students.

They credit the program with expanding athletic opportunities, improving student morale and parent involvement and even producing academic benefits. The program has also grown rapidly – more than 5,700 students compete yearly across seven different sports. The response has been so significant that even as district officials grapple with budget deficits and funding cuts, they aim to go in the opposite direction with middle school sports – expansion…

When it comes to athletics, Jones said California is behind the curve of some other states. Some middle schools have after-school leagues, but they’re often for sports like kickball, which are not high school sports. San Diego Unified’s goal was to create “vertical alignment,” with high schools, Jones said.

Exactly how this would work, or how many students would sign up, was unclear, Jones said. So, they decided to launch one sport as a test in the spring of 2022.

“We were like, ‘Hey, let’s roll out with the biggest sport in the world. Let’s roll out with soccer,’” Jones said. “Once people saw this, they said, ‘Oh my gosh, where has this been? We’ve always needed it. This is awesome. We want more.’” he said.

So, district officials answered. The next year, they added basketball, volleyball, flag-football and track. The year after that, they continued to expand, adding cheer and wrestling…”

Photos and article provided by Voice of San Diego. Read the full article here.