Mount Vernon activities director Matt Thede highlighted the trends for participation in extracurricular activities at Mount Vernon Community School District.
Mount Vernon has had an average of 231 boys and 228 girls over the past five years. When it came to participating in extracurricular activities, Mount Vernon saw an average of 167 boys participating in at least one activity in those five years and 128 girls participating in one activity.
Thede presented charts that tracked enrollment of different grades in multiple activities over the different classes. One of the trends that was highlighted was participation in activities was high in freshman and sophomore years, before classes begin seeing a slide in the junior and senior years.
One of the trends that Thede highlighted as an accomplishment for the district is that the football numbers for the district don’t sharply decline.
“It’s one of those sports that’s more injury prone, but our coaches do a lot to curtail those risks in practices,” Thede said. “It shows a nice job of growing and sustaining numbers.”
Girls basketball across the state has seen a sharp decline over the years, and Mount Vernon was seeing more bolstering of that program in younger grades.
The same can be said for softball, but that’s an area where Mount Vernon beats the state and national trend.
Thede said both softball and basketball are highly skilled sports, that usually require more than just joining up in high school.
“For basketball, for example, students have to be able to dribble a ball against a defender, know how to pass to a teammate or take a shot against a defender for a small target,” Thede said. “That’s a lot of skills.”
Choir and drama see significantly higher numbers of girls involved.
And all that involvement in extracurriculars shows up when it comes to state competitions. Over the past 11 years, Mount Vernon has had a state champion or runner up in 19 different events, roughly an average of two events per year. For the Class 3A, there are only a certain number of conference and state champion opportunities. The school has had 21 total team appearances for boys and 26 total team appearances for girls in post-season appearances in that 11 years.
Thede said all those accomplishments are not accidents, but a focus by Mount Vernon to develop all of their athletes.
“We cater to students who are two or three sport athletes,” Thede said. Another of the district’s biggest accomplishments is the focus on strength and speed. “We work to give every student a chance to be successful,” Thede said.
And one of that is coaches being steady through the storms and uncertainty. If students are losing a game, the focus isn’t on yelling, but on helping them get mentally back in the game or learn from that loss for the next competition.
Thede said one of the areas that this highlights – at the middle school level, Anamosa beats Mount Vernon football teams often. But those players in football also dread facing Mount Vernon when it comes to the high school level because of the focus and development athletes get from middle school to high school.
Thede also said running into Jack Cochrane at a local track meet this past week, Cochrane said he wouldn’t be where he is today without the coaching he received at Mount Vernon.
“The goal is making the least of our students better in whatever they are involved in, and that raises the bar for everyone,” Thede said.
Board member Kristi Meyer asked Thede what is being done to help increase numbers in some of those activities where enrollment is lower. Thede said that for basketball, they are focusing on increasing participation in lower grades to help increase turnout at the high school level and develop that program more. One of the areas that the district sees the numbers drop is that junior and senior year, and a lot of that is athletes who were out for multiple sports start focusing on two compared to three they were in before.
“A lot of the conversations highlight they had fun, feel valued, had a great time with teammates, they were just at that point needing a break from one of their sports,” Thede said.
Board member Lance Schoff said that a lot of that is because when seasons end, athletes don’t always move away from a sport like might have happened in the past.
“We do a great job of not stepping on other sports feet, but we expect our athletes to continue training in the postseason,” Schoff said.
Schoff said that kids will pull back if practices tip too far in one direction as well.
Thede said he has cracked down on some sports having a select number of practices a week in other seasons.