SHELDON—The Sheldon Parks and Recreation Department is serving up a new youth activity for its fall sports season.
The annual sign-ups have started for flag football and girls in first through fourth grade will have a chance to play volleyball for the first time since 2017.
Volleyball was started by the department in 2012 but low participation numbers led to discontinuing it five years later.
But volleyball is being brought back in 2022 for the girls.
“We wanted to do find something for the girls to do,” said Sheldon recreation director Jake Kerr. “Girls can do flag football if volleyball isn’t their thing. Hopefully, we can get a good number of participants for volleyball.”
Kerr said as of Monday, there are 20 first- and second-grade girls signed up for volleyball with 20 more signed up in the third- and fourth-grade division.
The deadline to register for the two volleyball divisions is Sunday and may be done at sheldoniowa.com/rec. Registration is $30 per participant and there is a discount for volunteer coaches as the league will rely on parents and volunteers to coach much like the summer baseball and softball teams. The registration deadline is Sunday, Aug. 14.
Volleyball will be held on Thursday nights starting Aug. 25 at the Northwest Iowa Lifelong Learning and Recreation Center. The league will run through Sept. 22. The first- and second-grade division will be 5-5:45 p.m. with the third- and fourth-grade division going 5:50-6:50 p.m. Times are subject to change based on the number of participants.
Sunday, Aug. 14, also is the registration deadline for the first- and second-grade flag football teams.
Kerr said there are about two dozen kids signed up for the first- and second-grade teams as of Monday.
“Usually, there’s a lot of last-minute registrations for the sports,” he said.
The first- and second-grade youth flag football league is held 6-7 p.m. on Tuesdays starting on Aug. 30. The program will run for six weeks with Oct. 4 serving as the final game. The first three weeks will be practices and the last three weeks will be scrimmages.
The cost is $15 per child.
Flag football sign-up for those in third through sixth grade goes until Sunday, Aug. 21. The registration fee is $25 and the jersey fee is $28.50. The recreation department is moving away from using NFL jerseys and will try to do more of a Sheldon football jersey instead.
Kerr said 15 are signed up for the third- and fourth-grade football so far and nine are signed up for the fifth- and sixth-grade division.
The flag football divisions are in partnership with the Sheldon High School football team.
Practices are held 5-6 p.m. for all grades on Monday starting on Sept. 12. The games will be 9-10:30 a.m. on Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8.
The recreation department is seeking parents for volunteer coaches for Saturday games. Coaches are welcome to assist during practices and will be provided a playbook.
The final fall activity available is for the adults as a coed volleyball league will be held at the LLRC.
The deadline to register is by 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26. Registration forms may be found online at sheldoniowa.com/rec and the cost is $150 per team. There are money prizes and members of the league champion receive a T-shirt.
“Last year was our highest number of team participants, and we were happy with that,” Kerr said. “There were 13 teams last year.”
The fall recreation season comes after a successful summer season of baseball, softball and T-ball, according to Kerr.
“We had a good number of participants,” he said. “A lot of people were excited with the batting cages. I am happy with the season overall.”
The end of the summer also means the final days of operation of the season for the Sheldon Family Outdoor Aquatic Center.
The last day the pool is open is 1-5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21. The pool also will be closed Saturday, Aug. 13, due to a lack of lifeguards.
“We are pretty thankful because a lot of the lifeguards have activities going on and they are helping out after their practices to keep the pool open,” Kerr said.
The pool will be open 1-8 p.m. on weekdays, 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 14 and Aug. 21 and noon-6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20.
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