That was the part I missed was Okay. Any other questions with Is that the reason um males aren't represented for beach volleyball as well? That is correct. Okay. Yeah, beach volleyball is not a uh male sport within the CIF. Great questions. Okay, next one. Okay, much like the slide before, this one is the complete opposite. This is with regards to our students that currently play sports or are involved in athletics at both schools. So these students say, "Hey, listen. I already play these sports. I'm already involved in athletics." That being said, if these sports were offered at the high schools, I would definitely be playing these sports. So, uh, starting with the females, you will see beach volleyball. That's big and it's up there. Um, you know, it's like 64 out of 115 students, female students, said beach volleyball is their their interest. They would love to do that.
That was just Chico High. Uh, PV was 38 out of 81. Flag football. Um, that is something that's uh uh gaining a lot of momentum within California and CIF. Um, so you it's just throwing that out there. It is gaining momentum. So 61 out of 115 females at Chico High said, "Yeah, this is kind of cool. I definitely play that." Um, and then, uh, PV has 39 out of 81. So, and so on and so forth. Then you see Bad Mitten down there, 59 out of 115, and then so on and so forth. When you look at the male side, uh, what does stand out there is that top bar, you'll see lacrosse. So 55 out of the 87 students that play athletics said, "Hey, listen. If there was lacrosse, I would definitely be interested in playing that sport." Um, and at PV it's 55 out of 62.
Um, and so then followed by bad mitten and water polo. What are your questions with regards to this slide? Okay, no questions. Okay, next one. Here's where we get to celebrate because this is pretty cool, I think. So, here what you have are all the league and section titles uh for the 2425 school year. And as you can tell, uh Chico High and Pleasant Valley are pretty even in terms of how they compete within section and the league. And it's impressive what our teams do uh within well within the CIF. I do want to say that for PV um because of the time that this came out, there were added uh there there was actually league champions and and I would be remiss if I didn't mention this because I I did tell uh Pam Jackson that I would share that the PV boys golf team won league.
Um so kudos to them. And then also um there's awards for coaches I thought that was fantastic. So, I will mention that Beth Burton and Dave Crawford were named section model coach award winners. Both of them from PE. So, I did want to share that. Okay.
Any questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] And on that same note, a big shout out to all of the uh coaches, staff, and the student athletes, of course, who fuel all that success. It's hard work on everybody's part, and it's really exciting when it uh when it shows up like this. That said, I know we just let him sit down. Anybody have any more questions regarding the presentation? In that case, um, do we have any public comment? I suspect we do. In fact, I know that we do. So, um, I see a lot of you out there and I'm super grateful that you came and that you stayed. I know it's been a lot of waiting. So, thank you for your patience. Maybe you've all decided suddenly that you want to pursue a career in alternate alternative education. Now, if you let do that be amazing, we'd love to have you.
Um, that said, we have four people who signed up with uh cards to speak. We are going to set aside a full 30 minutes. So, if we have uh more speakers after that, we um we have five total signed up. Oh, we do. Look at that. I know how to count, too, guys. I promise. Um but we'll set aside the full 30 minutes. Um so that if more people feel compelled to speak on this topic, they have time to do that.
That said, if you're new at speaking at board meetings, um you have uh three minutes. There is a beautiful clock back there. uh we will let you know with a sound when you are at 30 seconds um remaining in your time to speak. Um that said uh our first listed speaker is a student Oliver Brown. We'd love to hear from you. [Applause] My name is Oliver Brown and I'm a sophomore at Chico High with a 4.29 GPA. I'm in the engineering pathway, heavily involved in the robotics and rocketry clubs, and I've played lacrosse year round since seventh grade. I play locally with the Chico Rebels and nationally with the Sacramento Aces 2027 elite team. Because Chico High doesn't have a CIF lacrosse program, the Rebels are forced to travel as far as St. Louis Abyspo and Medford, Oregon just to find games. Meanwhile, schools Chico High already competes against in other sports like Nevada Union, Lincoln, Wood Creek, and Roseville already have their own CIF lacrosse teams, while we remain left out.
I plan to play college lacrosse and pursue a degree in mechanical engineering after graduating from Chico High. But as things currently stand, my school will never recognize me as an athlete. I can't justify buying a Chico High duffel bag. I will never wear my school's name on my jersey or be acknowledged as a scholar athlete at graduation. Despite playing lacrosse at a national level level, maintaining over a 4.0 GPA, taking honors and AP classes, and staying in active in clubs, my efforts in both academics and athletics go unseen simply because my sport isn't recognized here. I would never ask for an easier path as success requires hard work. However, I do ask for the same opportunities as my peers. Our community has a 40-year history of college lacrosse and 24 years of youth and high school lacrosse. With over hundreds of local supporters ready to contribute their time, effort, and money to CIF lacrosse, I simply ask for the chance to play for my school um like my peers and create more opportunities for others in our community to get involved.
Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you very much. Do we have a Leonard Jones? Good evening, board. Thank you for your time. I'd like to take a couple minutes. My name is Leonard Jones. Um I'm here to talk about my son, Ethan Jones. Uh he graduated um in the class of 23. Uh he did start playing lacrosse when he was 10 years old with the Chico Rebels. Um since that time, uh when he got into high school, obviously there wasn't a program available, so he did have to travel down to Sacramento where he was on a national travel team and was able to compete all over the United States. Um once he graduated, he actually received an athletic scholarship to play at Dominican University for lacrosse. Um which was kind of surprising because most kids don't have an opportunity to get a scholarship unless they play in high school.
So he was kind of the exception. Uh since that time, um he has the uh uh been able to try out for the Hong Kong national lacrosse team. were just in Hong Kong a few weeks ago to compete in a um Asian Open Championships. Um he will be competing in Berlin, Germany in July, also another tournament in Tokyo, Japan. And he has an opportunity to play in the U20 world championships in South Korea at the in mid August. All this started with the Chico Rebels. And I got to say, uh, it was interesting listening to the surveys and all the sports that kids would be interested in. But if you really look at, I think a question should be posed is if you had a sport that gave you the best chance to play in college, would you be interested in that sport? And that sport's lacrosse.
There's no other sport that gives a higher percentage that kids go on to play in college than lacrosse. It's one out of seven. And it's an equal opportunity sport. Both girls and boys play. There's over 10,000 girls and 10,000 boys in the state of California that play lacrosse. Uh you look at field hockey, there's probably 6,500 girls that go on to college to play. Lacrosse almost doubles that for girls. So um and it's actually going to be brought back as an Olympic sport um after a hundred years. So it will be a sport in the LA Olympics. So it's gaining in popularity. It's here to stay. Um, we would love for the CF to be a part of that program and um, appreciate your time. So, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] And for the next speaker, forgive me please if I mispronounce your last name.
Nick [Applause] Sarzo. Thank you. My name is Nick Farzo. Thank you for hearing myself and others express support for bringing lacrosse into the high schools. I am a teacher at Marsh Junior High School. I teach English and EL and have for nine years now. I've been a coach for the Rebels for the last 10 years. I'm here to o vocalize my support for adopting lacrosse as a CIF sport. Lacrosse is an incredible sport that has given athletic opportunities to athletes around the country. It is also a distinctly American sport, Native American to be clear, with deep cultural ties to various Native communities. My goal as a former player and coach is very simple. I want to grow the game of lacrosse. I want as many kids playing the sport as possible. I feel like I have a unique viewpoint on this matter as I've seen the landscape of lacrosse in California shift dramatically from witnessing and being a part of the explosive growth in the Bay Area in the early 2000s to seeing its decline in the North State.
I grew up in the Bay Area during a time in which only a few select private schools had lacrosse teams. When I was in middle school, posters were hung promoting a new sport that my future high school, Sarah, was planning to adopt, lacrosse. The poster said, "Sign up for the Coyotes lacrosse club to get prepared to play for your high school." I was excited. I had the chance to play a new sport and be one of the first players ever to play lacrosse for my high school. I signed up for the club, learned the sport, and when I went to high school, I had a very successful career. This propelled me to play lacrosse for Chico State and find a passion for coaching and teaching what is now my career. During that time in 2005, only a few handful of high schools in the Bay Area had lacrosse.
Now nearly every high school team has a team high school as a team. The sport has grown rapidly. During that time, club teams like Coyotes, the Vipers, the Red Hawks existed, but I never would have played had it not gone to my high school. Kids want to play for their school. They want to see their jersey. Now, Chico is not the Bay Area. We don't have dozens and dozens of schools surrounding us. But the same spread has been occurring in our nearest big city, Sacramento. A lot of the club programs that existed when I began coaching are now CIF. Wood Creek, Grass Valley, Roseville, Folsome, and there's more to be named. Lacrosse is spreading in Sacramento, too. But without action, that spread will stop. When club lacrosse was the structure, Chico was a dominant program. The Rebels have won state titles, sent kids to college on full and partial scholarships.
And let me just say, Leonard, I'm very happy that you've been doing so well. Excellent kid. But now, sadly, we are behind many of the programs who have gone CIF. The Rebels are one of only four high school club lacrosse teams left in the state. And with a record of 10 and one, we are showing that Chico is still a strong lacrosse city. However, the model needs to be changed. Lacrosse has spread rapidly in the Bay Area and Southern California. But how can that growth continue? With bold action. I want lacrosse everywhere in our community. I want these opportunities for our players. But that cannot happen without lacrosse growing CIF. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Our next speaker with a listed card is Hogan Brown. [Applause] Thank you. My name is Hogan Brown and I'm director of the nonprofit Friends of Chico Lacrosse, an organization working for the last two years with Chico Unified in our community to bring lacrosse to our local high schools.
The broader issue is that we need more athletic opportunities at the high school level. Chico High and PV are consistently competing for league and section titles and among the top athletic programs in the north section. Last year, our schools competed against 45% of their major sports context were games against Sanwaqin section teams. This is obviously in search of stronger competition to pursue t state titles in major sports. Compared to our most recent 13 sackw walkin section teams, the teams we play the most at Chicomp, we are 13% larger student bodies, but we offer 12% fewer sports. We offer 4% fewer varsity sports than our 13 most common opponents. We offer four 18% fewer JV sports and 25% fewer freshman sports. We need more no cut sports. Football, track, wrestling, as you saw from the survey, are bursting at the seams and growing each year. Lacrosse, a spring no cut sport with JV and varsity teams each of 35 to 45 players, offers an inclusive model.
In contrast to cut sports like basketball, volleyball, and baseball, these exclude late starters. For example, conservatively, we have eight eighth grade basketball teams that feed into just two 15 player freshman teams. In theory, cutting 75% of the players who played the year before. As a father, and an educator, I believe we choose our hard. It's hard being a coach, a parent, or a student. And no one hard no one understands hard better than the lacrosse community. They get the last pick of fields, have never been recognized as athletes by their schools or worn their school's names across their chest. Bringing CIF lacrosse to Chico High and PV will be hard, but so is telling a freshman there's no room on the bus or watching kids cut from teams for lack of space or funding. Hardest of all is seeing students drift through high school without purpose.
The phrase disengaged was used for about the last hour and a half. And sports engage students. We have coaches. We have open invitations to SAW Keen section leagues. We are fully funded by national, state, and local organizations. And we have the support of the community. I ask you, choose the hard that gives more kids a place to belong. Thank you. [Applause] Next speaker is Brian Kho. Yeah. Hi. Uh my name is Brian Kho. Uh I have a long history of This is just too short. I have a long history of lacrosse in this community. I moved here in the early 80s and started the Chico State team which is still going strong 40 years later. Um in 2002 I started the Chico Rebels program and uh that's had its ups and downs uh but it's still going strong and that's 20ome years later. Uh it's a dream to have uh this as a sanctioned CIF sport in the in the schools here.
It's just been a long time coming and it's overdue. And I mean, bad mitten's fun, but uh if we're talking about adding a sport that's going to enhance the lives of kids and give them a future to go to college and play a sport, it's a great sport. It's a great sport. It's It has a rich history and a deep culture that's all American. It's steeped in honor and respect. The players shake hands before the game. They shake hands after the game. We honor the game. We honor our opponent. It It belongs in the schools. And it's long overdue. I don't know why it hasn't been added as a CIF sport. In 2005, the CIF sanctioned it as a varsity sport in schools, and that's 20 years ago. So, what are we doing? Let's get it on board. I I don't know what it's going to take.
I've been waiting a long time. Um, and it's long overdue. There's a lot of kids that could really benefit for it. I'm not going to extol the view virtues of youth sports. You all know how great youth sports are. Um, this is a unique sport. It's a unique opportunity for kids to do something that's that's difficult to be a part of something that's bigger than themselves to get them off the damn screens. And uh, you need to do this. You really do. It's it's long overdue. So, thanks for your time. Thanks for listening to these guys and uh um I just hope that uh you make a good decision on this at some point when the time comes. Uh I realize tonight is not an actionable item, but hopefully it will be. And just please please please consider lacrosse. Please add it. It it you you'll see.