CUBA – Saturdays at Hood Park in September through early October are never quiet as 300 children from ages three to teenagers gather to play soccer through a local athletic association. Cheering them on are hundreds of parents and family members.

They are a part of the Cuba Soccer Program, which has been run by Noel and Amy Hendrix for the last 15 years. For all the enthusiasm and support around soccer, there isn’t a high school soccer program. 

Multiple residents in Cuba and the surrounding towns would like to change that, and have urged members of the Cuba R-2 Board of Education in recent months to offer soccer to boys and girls at the high school level. There isn’t a simple yes or no answer to add a soccer program to the sports menu, though.

Cuba High School Athletic Director Ryan Okenfuss did extensive research, including a detailed cost analysis, which he presented to the board at its Nov. 20 meeting.  

Okenfuss said he surveyed current eighth, ninth, tenth, and 11th graders to see if they would be interested in playing soccer. The survey asked students if they are currently athletes, whether they would be interested in playing soccer, and would commit to offseason training in preparation for the season. More than 100 girls and about 80 boys answered the survey, and 48 girls and 35 boys said they would be interested.

Okenfuss pointed out several issues. One was that only nine of the girls said that they had played soccer before. He added that 13 of them run track, which runs in the same season as girls’ soccer, in the spring. That means that either 13 athletes would not be able to participate in track, or they would have to be dual sport athletes.  

“There are all kinds of possible potential problems with having a sustainable program as far as numbers on the girls’ side there,” Okenfuss said.

On the boys’ side, 16 of the 35 boys who said that they would be interested in soccer don’t play any sports. Most said that they would commit to the offseason training program, but 11 of them play football or run cross country, which would take place during the fall, the same season as boys’ soccer. 

Okenfuss said that athletes could reasonably run cross country and play soccer. But he said playing soccer and football would be, “very, very difficult.” 

The board agreed that the number of ‘interested’ students would decrease when it actually came down to signing up for soccer. 

Okenfuss also detailed the financial burden that the district would have to take on, mainly the cost of a soccer field. While community members have suggested using Cuba’s football field for soccer, Okenfuss explained why that wouldn’t be feasible.

One reason he said is that the slope from the center of the football field to the sidelines “is way too drastic for soccer.” He said, “With soccer, you can’t have a ball start to go up the hill and then turn on its own when you’re trying to pass to someone else across the field.” 

He said that the minimum requirement for a soccer field recommended by the Missouri High School State Activities Association is at least a 65-yard-wide center field. 

“So we would need to gain about six yards on each side, on each sideline,” Okenfuss said. “If we were to expand each sideline by six yards, that sideline would be on or within inches of the drainage system that we have on the side of the field.” 

So, he said, not only would Cuba have to take the slope or the crown out, “we would have to go through and redo the entire sprinkler system on the football field.”

Okenfuss said that building or converting a grass soccer field (including necessary upgrades, drainage, and annual maintenance) would cost roughly $225,000. He added that installing a turf soccer field would cost about $1 million. 

“I have concerns about the cost involved with starting a program, not being 100 percent convinced that it will be sustainable with numbers and student interest, and then having to fix the fields or build a new one,” Okenfuss said. 

After Okenfuss finished his presentation, board member Tammi Palmer said that she still would like to see soccer at the high school level for the sake of the students interested in the sport.

“I would really like to be able to offer it at some point in time, because I do feel like we have a group of kids out there that are falling through and not having that opportunity to play their sport,” Palmer said.

Board member Adam Carnal suggested forming a committee with community members and school board members that would research and oversee the process of getting the facilities and the finances in order.

School board president Jennifer Moreland said that she also agrees with giving students an option for another sport. 

“I think yes, we can say we have football for boys. But you know what, not every boy plays football, and not every boy’s going to. Not every girl is going to play volleyball, and not every girl is going to play softball. So yes, there are kids out there. I don’t want us to be close-minded and say, no, we’re not doing it, because, you know, we only have a couple with experience.”

Moreland added that she had heard that some students and parents were saying that soccer was being proposed to replace football. She said that wasn’t true and hasn’t been brought up by a board member.

“The misinformation is, ‘oh, Cuba, they’re going to gain soccer, and they’re getting rid of football,’” she said. “That’s not what this is about. It’s about just looking at a potential opportunity to give kids more options.”

Board member Cheri Schuette said she was concerned about the declining number of students at Cuba High School. 

“I would rather see us work on getting those pulled back up before we start with another completely new sports program,” Schuette said. 

R-2 District Superintendent Scott Davidson suggested that a soccer field could be built where the old Administrative Building is located, after that building is removed. He noted that there is quite a bit of room in that area that could be developed into a new soccer field. 

He said that bringing soccer to Cuba is realistically a two or three-year plan. 

“If we’re going to do this, we want to do it the right way,” Davidson said.