WS Chronicle

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WSFCS) will soon gauge students’ interest in middle school football. While middle school football has been a topic discussed in local barbershops for years, WS/FCS is one of the only districts in a major metropolitan area that doesn’t offer middle school football. 

While giving a presentation on middle school sports during a recent school board meeting, John Sullivan, district athletic director, said soon the district will be sending out surveys to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders to gauge interest in football. Students surveyed will also be asked about other sports the district currently doesn’t offer, wrestling and lacrosse. 

“In the future, we know we need to do a survey of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders to see what sports and athletic teams they may have an interest in as they enter into middle school,” Sullivan continued. “And we’ll also survey our 7th and 8th graders to see if it’s something they might be interested in, but we want to capture this group first because they are our future middle schoolers.” 

Although the district doesn’t currently offer football, the district does offer 14 other sports including five new sports that were added this school year. When compared to the top five districts in the state, Wake County Schools (10), Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (13), Guilford County Schools (11), Cumberland County Schools (10), and Union County Schools (13), WS/FCS offers the most middle school sports. Currently WS/FCS offers cross country, girls and boys volleyball, girls and boys golf, baseball, softball, cheerleading, girls and boys basketball, girls and boys soccer, tennis, and track and field. 

“Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, we offer 14 sports as opposed to 10,11,13,” Sullivan said. “We feel like our offerings to our students are good and broad, but I know there’s one big one that we don’t compared to the others … we hear about it all the time and it’s one of the things we want to look at down the road.”