Cedar Valley Christian adds football for fall 2011

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Cedar Valley Christian's plunge into interscholastic athletics will begin Aug. 19.

Stephanie Hodge, the school's athletics director, said Thursday that the school will field an eight-man football squad this fall.

The Huskies have scheduled four games, starting with a contest Aug. 19 against West Central at Maynard.

"This is a great thing for our school," Hodge said. "The boys are very enthusiastic.

"We don't anticipate coming out and being great right away. We do have some good athletes, and some of them have played football before, but not at this level."

Twenty boys attended the first football meeting, and Hodge is hoping for a first-year roster of 14-20 players.

Ed Betsworth, the athletics director at LaSalle Middle School, will serve as the school's first football coach.

"Ed has raised a good amount of money through anonymous donations, and that will sustain the program for a while," Hodge said.

All of the Huskies' 2011 games will be road games. Hodge said the school is looking for a field for practice and future games.

Cedar Valley has games scheduled with West Central, Dunkerton, Midland and Central City this season.

All of those schools are members of Eight-Man District 4, and all have an opening in their schedule because East Central will no longer field its own team. East Central will enter a whole-grade sharing agreement with Northeast this fall.

Because the 2011 season will be the second year of a two-year district cycle, the Huskies won't be eligible for the state playoffs until 2012, according to Iowa High School Athletic Association official Todd Tharp.

"They'll have to compete as an independent in 2011, then we'll get them into a district in 2012," Tharp said.

Hodge is hoping to nail down additional games with Springville and Meskwaki Settlement School.

According to the 2011-12 BEDS Documents, Cedar Valley will have an enrollment of 58 in the top three grades next school year.

Next year will be Cedar Valley's first year as a school sanctioned by the IHSAA and Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. It will field teams in boys' and girls' basketball and volleyball, and may add other sports.

Hodge said the Huskies have 17 varsity girl-boy double-headers scheduled in basketball for 2011-12.