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When he became the Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) superintendent in June 2022, one of the first initiatives Mark Bedell envisioned was creating additional activities for middle school students.
After two years of planning, recruiting, certifying coaches, and meetings, the new program, simply called Middle School Athletics, will begin this spring with boys and girls soccer at all Anne Arundel County public middle schools.
The after-school program is designed to entice students to be more involved with their schools, make new friends, participate in sports and increase their activity levels.
“Learning doesn’t stop after the last bell rings,” said Severna Park Middle School sixth-grade social studies teacher and athletic manager Matthew Loock. “I’ve always been a fan of after-school activities, and this program should really help the students bond with one another and create a sense of pride for their school. The kids are excited and there’s definitely interest in the program.”
The program will be free, and the majority of coaches will be teachers within their respective schools.
“We’ve been extremely busy for the last two years designing this initiative,” said AACPS Coordinator of Athletics Clayton Culp. “We’ve had great support from the administrators, teachers, parents, as well as arranging the contracts with the bus companies and referees. We really have had great enthusiasm about the program and we’re looking forward to kicking off the program this spring.”
AACPS plans to offer nine sports from fall through spring. The middle school program will be run Monday through Thursday and not on weekends, so students can participate in both school and youth league activities.
Currently, the schedule includes boys and girls soccer in the spring; boys and girls basketball in the fall; boys and girls track and field in the fall; boys and girls flag football and unified bocce in the late fall and early winter; and co-ed cross country in spring 2026.
The middle schools will compete against one another and the county will provide bus transportation to and from those venues as well as the referees. Parents will need to pick up their children after practice and when the bus brings them back to their middle school after games.
The county has divided middle schools into geographic networks. Severna Park Middle School will be in the central network with Arundel, MacArthur, Meade, Northeast, Old Mill North and Monarch Global Academy middle schools. Magothy River and Severn River middle schools will be in the southern network with Bates, Central, Crofton and Southern middle schools, along with Phoenix Academy.
“We’ll be continuing to collect data and review every season to plan additional activities and futuristically play middle schools from other counties,” Culp said.
Matt Smith, the AACPS middle school athletic specialist, made numerous presentations at middle schools in late January and received positive feedback from parents.
“The parents have been overwhelmingly supportive about the athletic project and many of the schools’ Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) are organizing concession services for the games,” Smith said.
Loock would like to see that support continue in the Severna Park community once games start.
“We hope that the students create great memories for playing for their schools and (are) proud of wearing their jerseys,” Loock said. “We made the starting times of the games in the late afternoon so many parents can come out and watch their children represent their school.”
To learn more about middle school athletics, visit www.aacps.org/athletics.
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