REMUS – Chippewa Hills High School has announced it will not be having boys soccer team this season because of a lack of numbers.
The Warriors were scheduled to host Pine River on Friday for a nonleague game. Pine River officials said they would be playing Cadillac Heritage in a makeup.
Chippewa Hills was also scheduled to play at home against Big Rapids on Wednesday and at Reed City on Sept. 21 as part of its Central State Activities Association schedule.
“We did not have the numbers come out to field a boys team for this year,” Joe Szombati said. “There were only five players that came out and we were not sure of what the numbers were going to look like but we were hoping that we could field a team.
“The plan is to gain interest throughout the fall and school year to have a boys team for the Fall of ‘23. We plan on having a girls soccer team (in the spring).”
Jay Frank coached the boys team last fall and also coached the Warrior girls soccer team in the springs of 2021 and 2022.
He was planning on coaching the boys team this fall.
“It has been a challenging start/end of our boys’ soccer season,” Frank said. “I am sad that we had to cancel the traditional boys’ soccer season due to lack of interest. We had a total of five student-athletes able to commit to this fall season including one female soccer player. Ultimately, that isn’t enough for a competitive season.
“I am hopeful that we can provide an alternate solution such as a club season. I am working with our new Athletic Director to figure out how this would look. We need to focus on our recruitment for next year. I feel especially saddened for our senior, Bryce Willman. He is a role model both on and off the field. He led by example. Bryce attended nearly all our off-season summer workouts. He will be missed.”