Dwindling interest slashes cross country, girls soccer at Highlands

When Highlands cross country coaches Rich Bogaty and Kevin Deasy retired in the spring, it appears most of the team hung up their running shoes as well.

The district won’t field a cross country team this year for lack of interest, according to athletic director Katie Jo Stobert.

The same goes for girls soccer.

“That’s the bad news,” Stobert said.

The good news, she said, is that the district will focus on regrouping both sports with intentions of making a strong comeback.

Bogaty said last year that some of the problem lies with larger sports becoming all-consuming.

“Back in the old days when I was coaching, the basketball and wrestling coaches would encourage their players to come out for cross country and track because of the great training they would get,” he said.

“(Now,) a lot of the coaches only want the kids to practice that sport, so it’s almost become a year-round thing with all the clinics and other programs players are expected to participate in,” he said. “Being a multisport athlete is not as popular as it once was.”

There were about seven runners on the cross country team last year, two of whom graduated.

Stobert said only one student had signed up as of July to participate this year.

In addition, the school board hired a coach in June, but the candidate declined the job the following month.

The lone runner could have competed individually with the Freeport Area High School team and at invitationals but chose to pursue another team sport, Stobert said.

Girls soccer is a disappointment that follows the sport’s roller-coaster ride in recent years at Highlands. From a postseason run in 2016 to a trip to the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs in 2019, the team has since gone winless for two seasons and membership dwindled to the point where there weren’t enough players to field a team.

“We started the season with 17 last year, and by the end there were nine,” Stobert said. “That’s not even enough to play.”

Of those nine, seven graduated, she said.

Stobert said her goal is to reach out to co-op with local schools and rebuild.

It’s a move that other local districts have had to make.

Last week, the Allegheny Valley School Board approved a cooperative agreement with Riverview that allows the schools to have partnerships in wrestling, softball and golf.

The WPIAL must approve the agreement before students can begin competing as one team.

The Dynamos are able to field a softball team, but Riverview couldn’t this past year because it didn’t have enough players. Under the agreement, Springdale would run the softball team and assume all costs.

Riverview would operate the wrestling program and pay for all costs.

If Highlands follows suit with girls soccer, the move would take the district out of WPIAL competition for two years.

“Hopefully, we can field a team and prove our way back in,” Stobert said.