Eastpointe school board receives athletics update

EASTPOINTE — This fall, a total of 169 Eastpointe High School and Eastpointe Middle School students are involved in after-school athletics.

They’re running cross country, playing football and volleyball, cheerleading and more. Eighty-five of them are in middle school and 84 play at the high school level.

At the Sept. 25 Eastpointe Community Schools Board of Education meeting, K-12 Athletics & Activities Director Russell Ball gave an update on the district’s fall athletics program. Ball said school officials plan to offer 28 different sports this year: 11 in the fall; 10 in the winter; and seven in the spring.

“This fall we are offering, for the first time in quite some time, middle school football, high school and middle school cross country, as well as high school soccer,” Ball said. “We are continuing to offer the high school football, high school and middle school volleyball, and then sideline cheer at both levels as well.”

This winter, Ball said, the district will expand to offer competitive cheer, boys and girls basketball at both levels, high school and middle school wrestling, high school boys and girls bowling, and sideline cheer at Eastpointe Middle School.

Looking forward to spring, there will be high school and middle school track, high school boys golf, and baseball and softball. While at the podium, Ball gave a brief summary regarding how the fall teams are performing. One athlete, for instance, is participating in three different sports this fall.

“(Middle school) football returning was a big point of pride for me. We were able to bring that back this year, and you can see we have almost 40 athletes involved,” Ball said. “Our first game, we got a nice win against Kennedy.”

He said both the high school and volleyball teams started off the season by winning their games.

“It was great to see high school varsity soccer return to the field at Forest Park,” Ball said, adding that the team won its first game against Hazel Park the previous week. “We started the season being downsided playing eight (players) versus 11, which is a challenge for our athletes. One of the great things about our coaches is most of them have taken a ‘bring the athlete anytime they come to us attitude,’ so we are still adding athletes to our teams as we speak.

“Our high school soccer team was able to round out to a full 11, as well as have a sub,” Ball said. “We do have new equipment coming for them, new soccer goals and benches to be installed at the facility.”

During the meeting, school board Treasurer Robert Roscoe inquired about AEDs. An automated external defibrillator is used to help a person experiencing sudden cardiac arrest. The medical device can analyze the heart’s rhythm and, if needed, deliver an electrical shock to help the heart reestablish an effective rhythm.

“The defibrillators, do you have them? How far are they apart and how quick can we get to them?” Roscoe asked. “We want to know that our children are safe. Can you give us a synopsis on what’s going on with that?”

Ball said that all the coaches are trained to use the AED devices and in CPR and first aid.

“We do have emergency action plans for each facility that we’re at,” Ball said. “At each of our facilities, we have an AED directly outside of the gym. For our off-site facilities when our coaches travel, we do have a travel AED they are required to take with them.”

The Eastpointe High School cheerleading team is selling “Cheer for the Cure” T-shirts as a team fundraiser and to raise breast cancer awareness during the Pink Out home game Oct. 20. The game, against Ortonville’s Brandon High School, will be at 7 p.m. at Memorial Field at 24820 Flower Ave., at 10 Mile Road. Shirts can be ordered online at stores.rhinoprint.com/eastpointe_cheer/shop/home until Oct. 8. Shirts can be picked up at the Oct. 20 game.