On Friday, August 9, the Sedona-Oak Creek School District canceled its girls soccer season for the second consecutive year due to lack of interest.

“Initially, eight to 10 players expressed interest, but ultimately only four signed up,” Pedro Ortega Sr., athletic director at Sedona Red Rock High School, said of the program. “We held several meetings and gave the players time to pitch to each other, but in the end they decided their interest wasn’t high enough to move forward.”

In soccer, teams typically have a minimum of 18 players to allow for substitutions, with 11 players on the field at any given time. The district had set a goal of signing 14 to 15 players to ensure a successful season. Two of the four players who originally signed up have since joined the volleyball team, while the other two are undecided about participating in other sports.

Ortega said no other SRRHS sports are at risk of cancellation due to low participation and that the district remains committed to fielding a girls soccer team for the 2025-26 season.

“We will start the registration process early next year, possibly towards the end of the current school year, to gauge interest and better publicize the opportunity within the school,” Ortega said. “We will also consider sending out a survey to gauge interest and see if we can reach the 14-15 player mark that is essential to running a competitive soccer program.”

The district has not yet explored the possibility of starting a football team, but has hired Kaloa Neukan to succeed Stephen Hanks as head coach of the program.

During the Aug. 6 board meeting, SOCSD Superintendent Tom Swaninger said there has been a 32% increase in student applications for Sedona Red Rock High School’s varsity sports programs compared to last year, compared to 50% in the school’s middle school division, where the increase was due to greater interest in volleyball and the creation of a cross country program.

Sports participation

“It is unfortunate that girls’ soccer has been canceled again. Overall, our participation numbers are heading in the right direction and (we) consider this increase a success,” Swaninger said afterwards.

The total number of players registered to participate in all sports was 77 for high school sports and 125 for middle school sports, up from 67 and 97, respectively, in 2023. Participation in high school volleyball increased from 20 to 22 participants, cross country from six to nine, boys soccer from 22 to 29 and swimming from 10 to 13.

Middle school volleyball enrollment increased from 67 to 78 and flag football enrollment increased from 14 to 18. Eight students are participating in the inaugural season of middle school cross country.

“I’m in a unique situation (because) I’m the only teacher in the entire school district that knows every single student,” said Cody McKesson, an orchestra and music teacher at SOCSD who teaches at both West Sedona School and SRRHS. “So I’ve done my best to build positive relationships with the fifth-graders who are moving on to sixth grade at the end of the year. I’ve sent a lot of emails to those fifth-graders, to the parents of kids that I thought would really benefit from playing sports, whether it’s cross country or not. So a lot of work in building that relationship with the families and the students.”

“I wanted to get a sense of how interested they were in promoting and possibly even growing youth sports in Sedona,” Swaninger said of discussions with Sedona’s Parks and Recreation Department about sharing facilities. “I assured them that if there was a problem with the facilities, we would open our facilities if possible, as long as it didn’t interfere with the sports and events we have for our own students.”

Swaninger said the district is also considering hosting a Special Olympics event in the spring.

“We want to take time at the beginning of board meetings to highlight our student athletes,” Swaninger said. “I want to continue that celebration for those athletes at school as well, maybe during lunch when we can take a microphone and bring the students up to the front and have some of the coaches talk about the accomplishments of those athletes. We’ll also do student announcements and highlight individual athletes on social media and newsletters. That’s better for those students, but it’s also better for the community.”