More than two dozen people, including Mossyrock School District teachers, students and their relatives, attended the Mossyrock School Board’s regular meeting on Monday, April 21, to ask for help creating new school-sanctioned boys soccer teams at Mossyrock Junior/Senior High School for the 2025-2026 school year.
Leading the efforts to convince the school board were Crystal DeMarco, president of the Mossyrock Soccer Club, and Mossyrock Senior High School 11th grade students Freddy Solis and Jesse Wells.
The trio made their case for the school-sanctioned team during the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting, which was held inside the Mossyrock School District’s board room.
Their request comes as youth outdoor soccer participation has been on the rise nationwide, with nearly 14.1 million children in America playing soccer in 2023 — an 8.1% increase from 2022, and a 23% increase going back to 2018, according to a report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.
According to DeMarco, Wells had already been volunteering as a referee for the parent-run Mossyrock Soccer Club for about three years and helping grow the club, which is a part of the Lewis County Youth Soccer Association.
“We’ve really been trying to grow the program, Really trying,” DeMarco said. “And we got over 200 enrollees last year. It’s growing. There’s enough players for (a) high school boys (team), junior high boys (team).”
“Me and Freddy have gotten enough students, through just Mossyrock alone, to have a team of our own,” Solis added. “There is other schools willing to combine with us next year, if that is a need, to be able to have a team.”
DeMarco and Solis stated other districts where students expressed interest in playing for Mossyrock Junior/High School-sanctioned soccer teams included the Morton School District, Onalaska School District, Toledo School District and Winlock School District.
“We want to make a valley team, is pretty much what we’re saying. A lot of my U12, who now will be U13-U14, are from Morton, too, because they don’t have soccer,” DeMarco said. “So this will benefit not only these boys, but so many other kids in our valley.”
DeMarco is a Morton resident. She added that currently within the Lewis County Youth Soccer Association around 270 people — accounting for referees and coaches along with players — are already involved.
“We’re gaining two more teams this year,” she said.
Also speaking out in support of school-sanctioned soccer teams was Wells’ grandmother, Pam Jimenez, of Mossyrock.
“We have a group of boys here that have played soccer together ever since they were like 8 years old. We have petitioned the school repeatedly to make a soccer team for these boys, these high school boys,” Jimenez said. “They now have 15 boys, which is adequate to make a good-sized high school soccer team. We have been invited for the last two years. Winlock (and) Toledo have begged for us to join them, paying the full price of everything if we would just join them. And we were denied that.”
She added as members of the Mossyrock Soccer Club, the students have already played other regional teams, including clubs as far away as Longview and even Centralia who visit for matches during the summer.
“They want to be a team to play, at least their last year. They only have one more year that they can play soccer here. And they desperately want to be able to do that,” Jimenez said.
Also in attendance at Monday’s meeting was Maritza Bravo, a Centralia School Board member who drove out to advocate for school-sanctioned teams there. Her husband was originally born in Mossyrock, and the couple still has family in the area.
“An attempt was made when my husband was in elementary school (here). Unfortunately, it did not stick around. But that had a huge impact on him and the person he is today. All these boys deserve that shot and deserve to have a team,” Bravo said. “A lot of your high school boys do drive out to Tenino, to Tumwater, to Centralia, every weekend to play with the men’s leagues. The want, the need, is there.”
Mossyrock Elementary School fifth grade teacher Chandler Kraft spoke out in support of soccer teams at the Mossyrock Junior/High School as well. She stated many of her students’ favorite sport is soccer, and she wants to see them have the chance to continue playing soccer at the school in their community.
The Mossyrock School Board members appeared to be in favor of creating school-sanctioned boys soccer teams at Mossyrock Junior/Senior High School.
Mossyrock School Board member Mitchel Townsend explained the next steps he and his fellow board members would take, included taking a look at the school district’s current funding and what they have committed to paying for in the upcoming 2025-2026 school year already to see if creating school-sanctioned soccer teams is viable.
They would take into account what the field usage and scheduling looked like for the school’s other sports, which already utilize the fields at Mossyrock Junior/Senior High school.
“Then we would get together as a board and talk about a proposal and how we could facilitate that within the constraints of the budget we already have,” Townsend said. “We do have a little bit of flexibility, and so I don’t think it’s out of reach. It’s just really about trying to organize what’s proposed and what we have within the confines of our current projections. And then trying to come up with some plan that’s going to be successful.”
Mossyrock School District Superintendent Mark Chandler asked DeMarco if there was enough interest to create girls soccer teams at the junior and high schools.
According to DeMarco, she currently only has two girls participating in the Mossyrock Soccer Club’s older team. But she believes that’s only because other girls in the Mossyrock area are more interested in playing fastpitch softball, basketball or volleyball — as those are the sports Mossyrock Junior/Senior High School already has girls teams for.
“They all got sucked into the other sports because soccer wasn’t available. So I feel like once they see a team, all these kids are going to come out of the woodwork because soccer is such a big sport,” DeMarco said.
She added she is more than willing to help with extra fundraising efforts to pay for equipment and uniforms needed for school-sanctioned teams.
“You make a very convincing case for moving forward. So, we’re going to have follow-up discussions,” Townsend said.
The Mossyrock School Board convenes on the third Monday of every month at 7 p.m. inside the school district’s board room, located at 545 Williams St. in Mossyrock.
For more information and to access audio recordings of Mossyrock School Board meetings, visit the school board’s website at https://www.mossyrockschools.org/page/school-board.
