Spokane Public Schools continues its Engage in Real Life initiative. The message to students is: put down your phones after school and find productive things to do with other people.
"It's really a part of our In Real Life initiative for every kid every day to be active out of school, off of their device, out of their homes, doing things in community, whether it's a club or an activity or performing art. And we know in order to make that dream possible for all of our kids across Spokane, we need a wide continuum of programs,"
The district's Together Spokane partnership with the Spokane city Parks Department proposes dozens of projects designed to enhance schools and parks around the city. To fund those, the district will put a bond issue and the Parks Department a property tax levy before voters in November.
In one project, the entities would partner with the United States Tennis Association to put a bubble over the tennis courts at Shadle Park and turn it into a year-round indoor facilitiy. The USTA would donate money and sporting equipment.
"We're going to bring in-school P.E. classes. We're going to bring equipment and training to the P.E. teachers so they have an in-school portion, and then we're also going to provide an after-school portion for the kids as well in elementary, middle, and high schools, which will feed into the high school programs as well and then feed into the new kind of community hub tennis center here at Shadle Park," said Matthew Warren, USTA's chief executive for the Northwest region.
District officials are hoping that if they build it, students and the rest of the community will come. They're off to a good start.
"We saw some record high enrollment in tennis. It was one of our highest spring sports participations," Swinyard said.
"In the Greater Spokane League, the numbers have risen significantly," said Scott Wortley, Shadle Park High School's boys' tennis coach. "Girls this year, I can speak on Lewis and Clark's girls tennis program, had over 100 girls signed up for tennis. 100 girls were playing tennis this year. We had around 75 boys signed up."
Wortley attributes some of that newfound popularity to the growing visibility of the biggest stars in the sport.
"There's a lot of professional players that are a lot younger that cater to the younger generations. And it's really cool to see. I mean, the hot ones right now are Carlos Alcaraz, Ben Shelton, those guys who really bring kind of the culture back into tennis. And so kids are kind of idolizing them. You see it in some of the games that they play and the fun that they have and the way that they dress and they act is just idolized and embedded in our sport right now."
Besides tennis, there are several other sports that are seeing increased student interest. They include cheerleading, which, at least at some schools, has become more of a co-ed activity.
"We are lucky and we have 13 [boys]," said Ferris Head Cheerleading Coach Emily Schutz.
"University High School has 14. North Central, I think, has five. Like, there's so many. And so it's just become so much more socially acceptable to, you know, be a co-ed cheerleader that I think that it's really made it grow."
Schutz says cheerleading has morphed in the 20 years since she was a Ferris cheerleader.
"Back in the early 2000s, we focused a lot on dancing and just kind of more fun crowd cheers and now our team focuses so much on leading a crowd, trying to get the crowd to yell, you know, defense, touchdown, things like that. And then we've incorporated so many male cheerleaders that our crowd really follows along with our kids now because they just really respond to co-ed stunts and co-ed cheers and the megaphones. They just, it's so different than it used to be. I love it, but it's funny because there's no way I would have made this team."
The number of students turning out for football is also increasing, which may be a surprise. Some districts are seeing lower turnouts because of long-term health concerns associated with the sport.
"Football has grown to the point where over 500 kids play it in high school," said Stephanie Splater, Spokane Public Schools' executive director of athletics and after school programs. She says it's become popular enough that the district has developed a pilot program for middle school football.
