The eyes of many of those living along the path around the Falls in recent days were focused well to the south in Brazil, site of the soccer World Cup championship. There are a number of connections worth pondering.
Over the years, families in the district have hosted a few exchange students from Brazil. The student exchange program has always been a great way to make connections with faraway lands, long before there was an Internet.
Many of those connections are long-lasting ones. Fairly often, we hear of families traveling to Europe or other corners of the world to visit individuals they had once hosted as foreign exchange students. More often than not, the students who come to the U.S. through this program turn out to be very successful in life as they move into careers. One could speculate that it has to do with the experience they had in Oconto Falls, but more likely it has to do with the fact that the strong support of their own families encouraged them to do well in higher education and business.
Another connection has to do with the fact that Brazil is one of the very few countries that is totally energy independent. It is the world’s second largest producer of ethanol. It is said to have the world’s first sustainable biofuels economy. This comes from the fact that the raw material for its ethanol industry is sugar cane, rather than corn, as is the case in the Midwest.
Every nation is looking for energy independence, and Brazil’s combination of vast regions devoted to agriculture and the climate that promotes the growth of sugar cane make that an easy goal to reach.
The hosting of the World Cup tournament was a bit controversial due to the vast amount of resources that were poured into building the stadiums and other infrastructure, in spite of wide areas of poverty not far from the stadiums. Even so, with the tournaments under way, that was soon forgotten.
Soccer is a world sport and any hope for the American team to do well was a long shot. The popularity of soccer is growing, even in the local area. A number of youth soccer leagues exist. However, it is slow to catch on. A few high schools have soccer, and the number is growing.
One of the challenges with supporting a soccer team is that it is scheduled in the fall. Small schools cannot easily field competitive soccer and football teams. This is less of an issue in larger school districts, where the numbers make that less of a challenge.
Soccer had gained some popularity because of the lower risk of injury, which is becoming more of a concern with football.
Many school districts find that participation numbers are down in football. A number of schools in Wisconsin have moved to eight-man football. Occasionally, schools have canceled their varsity season and just played junior varsity until the numbers build back up. Neither of these is really an option for Oconto Falls High School, but there is a concern about numbers. More high school students having jobs is another contributing factor for lower participation.
Both football and soccer use similar, but not identical, sized fields. Both are about the same length, but soccer fields are about 20 yards wider. Many of the current high school football fields cannot be used for soccer because of the narrow width of the playing surface.
Understanding that concern, the best design of a football field/track complex is one which will allow a regulation soccer field to fit on the same space. Such is the design of the football field/track combination being considered by the voters in the district’s August referendum. It only makes sense today to consider all options in the design of new playing fields.
While there is growing interest in soccer, it is unlikely that that will be picked up as a competitive high school sport at OFHS anytime in the near future. It might make sense as a youth sport or as part of the city recreation program.
It’s a long way into the future, but the day may come when an OFHS grad might be playing on one of those World Cup teams. If so, maybe it will be because a foreign exchange student sparked the interest, and they had a chance to play the game on that new field next to the high school.
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