WHAT’S UP REC??

With a new school year upon us and excitement for school sports returning, it is a great opportunity for an update from the City of Soda Springs Recreation Department! 2024 has brought a lot of changes to the recreation programs in Soda Springs, and it is time to fill in the community on what is going on! I was hired on May 6 to take over as the full time Recreation Director. I grew up in Soda Springs and am excited to help restore and grow our recreation department to activities beyond just youth sports. I have spent the last 26 years gaining experience in a variety of settings to be able to help bring the recreation department into a new generation of activities for all ages. I completed my Bachelor of Science degree at Utah State University in Physical Education and History, and still maintain a teaching certificate through the State of Idaho for both endorsements. I completed a Master of Education at Utah State in Physical Education and Sport, with an emphasis on sports performance and conditioning, and am in the final year of my PhD program at Idaho State University in Rehabiltiation and Health Science – emphasizing prehabilitation and motor learning in youth. It is great to be able to return and help the future generations be able to learn great life lessons through activities in Soda Springs, and I am thankful to be home!

Changes are an essential part of growth and life. We are making changes to help create environments to make our recreation programs fun for all ages and talent levels. We are moving our recreation schedule around to provide more opportunities for the youth and hope to be able to extend the age range for our activities as well. Our biggest change is returning weekends to the parents to choose how to spend them! All our recreation programs will take place during the week to allow for parents to have more flexibility in weekend options. For our youth athletes that choose to play in travel weekend leagues, this change helps facilitate both recreation opportunities and advanced games as well. Most notable is moving volleyball to the spring. This will give our department the ability to open registration up to middle school athletes and coincide with the traditional club volleyball season which will give our athletes more opportunities to play. Our intention is not to make athletes choose between volleyball and track, but in the past, they have had to choose between volleyball and soccer/flag football. With our new calendar, we are not overlapping recreation sport offerings to allow the youth to play as many as possible and get the body development through different sports.

After doing an internal audit of what has happened in the past in the recreation department, it was important to make changes. Due to recent comments made on social media by individuals outside of Soda Springs, I would like to fully explain the why behind our changes so that the community is aware of what is going on! In Soda Springs, we are averaging between 20-25% of our youth participating in activities sponsored by the recreation department. It is impacting our school sports as the number of students wanting to participate at those levels is low. It is my job, as paid for by the taxpayers of the city, to do what is best for the youth in Soda Springs. With that said, it has come to my attention that in the past there has been a co-op understanding with neighboring cities to combine our recreation programs. While this has brought opportunities to compete outside of Soda Springs, it has brought more detrimental impacts over time to the recreation program than positive changes. Many parents are not able to travel outside of Soda Springs due to work, family, or financial reasons for recreation games. During our coach pitch and t-ball season this year, we had many of our teams be short players when they had to travel to Grace or Bancroft to play. When we are struggling to get kids to play, it is important to remove as many barriers as possible and make activities more accessible for families to participate in.

There is a complaint that we are accessing a $500 team fee to play in our recreation programs for teams outside of Soda Springs. This is based on the $50 out of city charge for participants, and an estimate of team sizes. While we are still working on adjusting our team fees for those in our league, it is hard to justify charging Soda Springs area youth outside our city limits more than youth from other towns for the same program. While we do allow for individuals from outside of the Soda Springs area to register for our city programs and we do our best to put all the players from similar cities together, we provided the team option for organizations or other areas to enter their own team and take responsibility and liability for each individual on that team. Again, our focus is on providing the best opportunity to participate for our youth in Soda Springs and keeping their games at home for parents.

We are moving our basketball programs during the week to follow middle school practices, making our games the same time that practices could be held under the previous arrangement. While there has been a suggestion on social media that we are starting games at 8pm, that is an unfounded accusation. The City of Soda Springs has an established agreement with the Soda Springs School District and worked out our details prior to making any changes. Without being informed of all the details, misinformation has created problems that are not necessary. The participation numbers for basketball are not great, and we are making changes to make an environment for more of our youth to participate without an intense level of competition in our recreation leagues and provide more fundamental development. By moving games to the weekdays, we are creating opportunities for those wanting more games to choose to play on the weekends in an all-star format.

Finally, there has been information online to suggest that we are not supportive of 5/6th grade tackle football. Research has shown that many children simply are not big enough to handle tackle football at that age level. We are providing a flag football opportunity for those individuals that are hesitant to play tackle football at a young age. Our goal is to help as many kids as possible learn and appreciate the game, and in return hope that more will be willing to play tackle football when they feel they are ready. In many communities, tackle football and flag football work together to ensure safety for all wanting to participate. This information was shared with the director of football at the beginning of July with an assurance that our flag football season started after tackle, so that those choosing not to play tackle could still be involved in the game this fall. We are opening a new girl’s powderpuff football league this fall and working to bring back adult flag football as well.

I am extremely proud of my childhood in Soda Springs. I participated in all the recreation sports offered by the city, even living outside city boundaries and paying the extra fee. I had the opportunity to play all-stars and travel basketball growing up. The opportunity to play on recreation teams with many of my classmates helped build long lasting relationships with those that I may have never really gotten to know. Did everyone still play in high school? No. But did it make us better as a whole? Yes. It helped our graduating class be close and makes our reunions an event you want to attend. I want to restore that community cohesiveness, and with play as the universal language – we can start to build bridges through our recreation department. I fully recognize that things change naturally over time in all of us! Those of us in older age brackets can feel the impact of that change!  Change can be hard, but it is necessary to grow. I will not apologize to anyone for fighting for what is best for our community and ask for the Soda Springs community to trust the process - because in the end, we will be better and a stronger community. 

What is coming up?

• We are bringing back running events and adding winter xc ski and snowshoe events!! All information will be on our website and social media! 

• Haunted Fun Run and Trunk or Treat in October

• We are excited to bring back Elementary Field Days in the spring! The community is invited to attend and cheer on this great event. Date to be announced in February!

• We are actively working on pickleball courts!

• Outdoor Exploration Camp in 2025

• Outdoor Recreation Programs in 2025

• We have some great events for the community coming in 2025! 

All programs and corresponding information are on our new recreation website and app. 

I look forward to continuing to serve Soda Springs in this position and hope to provide as many community events as possible in the future!