CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A recent proposal to offer middle school wrestling in Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools has prompted a larger discussion about what sports are offered across the district and what it would take to “balance” sports across all schools.

At Tuesday’s School Board meeting, CMCSS spokesman Anthony Johnson presented the staff findings, along with some recommendations on how to continue rolling out sports at the middle school level.

Adding middle school sports

From the 1980s until recently, basketball has been the only sanctioned middle school sport. “We spent about 40 years with just one sport,” Johnson said. “We want to continue increasing, but we know we have to do that in a sustainable way.”

In recent years, CMCSS has been making progress in adding other middle school sports, starting with volleyball and cross country in 2018. Football and cheerleading launched in 2023. But the following TMSAA (Tennessee Middle School Athletic Association) sports are not available: soccer, baseball, softball, track, wrestling, flag football, tennis and golf.

Here are the startup cost estimates for adding those first five sports – the ones that have state tournaments – for equipment, uniforms and supplies, total for all eight middle schools:

• Baseball: $57,760
• Soccer, boys and girls: $95,200
• Softball: $28,720
• Track, boys and girls: $46,560
• Wrestling, boys and girls: $260,000

Sports facilities across CMCSS

Those startup costs do not include the cost of additional facilities. The good news is that most sports could be accommodated at all schools – except wrestling.

Each of the eight high schools are on the same campus as their feeder middle school, except for Northwest High, which is 6 miles down Cunningham Lane from its feeder school, New Providence Middle. This allows many sports programs to share facilities between the middle and high schools. “There’s some challenges with that, but nothing that we can’t overcome,” Johnson said.

However, there are some gaps in facilities.

• Gyms: All 16 schools have a gym. Most of the schools have an auxiliary gym, which could be used for wrestling. The exceptions are Kenwood Middle, New Providence Middle and Rossview Middle, which have rooms that could be used as an auxiliary gym, and Montgomery Central Middle, which doesn’t have a space for that.
• Stadiums, practice fields, baseball fields, softball fields and tennis courts: All eight high schools have these.
• Tracks: Four high schools have tracks: Kenwood, Kirkwood, Rossview and West Creek.
• Additional: Clarksville High stands out as the only school with a dedicated wrestling building and a football field house.
• Hitting facilities: Five high schools have baseball hitting facilities: CHS, MCHS, Northeast, Northwest and Rossview. Three have softball hitting facilities: CHS, MCHS and Northwest.

If CMCSS were to try to offer middle school wrestling, Kenwood, New Providence and Rossview could use existing multi-use spaces, but an auxiliary gym would need to be built for Montgomery Central, at an estimated cost of $2.54 million.

Funding proposal

At previous meetings, School Board member Aron Maberry had proposed pushing ahead with wrestling. One suggestion was to draw from the fund balance (reserves) to make it happen.

On Tuesday, Johnson laid out some details on how the fund balance works, and what that would mean for the budget. He said CMCSS currently has an unassigned fund balance of 7.46% of the budgeted operating expenditures. That is well over the state required minimum of 3% (approximately $14 million).

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But that money is held in reserve for a reason: “It is important for CMCSS to maintain a healthy fund balance for cash flow purposes during months when no TISA (state) funds are being received and at the start of the fiscal year when property tax dollars are not coming in as well,” Johnson’s presentation stated. “Unassigned funds may be used for certain needs that arise during the school year; however, these are only part of the funds that make up our overall fund balance.”

He also pointed out that for the 2025-26 budget year, CMCSS cut $12 million in educational and operational requests made by the departments.

CMCSS staff recommendations

The staff offered some recommendations for the School Board if it decides it wants to move forward with expanding middle school sports.

“We are not advocating or requesting that this work be done at this time,” Johnson said. “We wanted to give you the facts and paint a picture because the question was asked.”

Considering the costs, timing and startup needs, CMCSS recommended that the board continue planning for additional sports in 2026-27 and future budgets, finding ways to sustainably expand the offerings, while balancing fall, winter and spring sports, and considering startup and ongoing costs.

In addition, they recommended addressing supplemental pay for coaches, which has already been identified as “not competitive” with what’s offered in surrounding districts, Johnson said.

They also offered an alternative. If the board decides to draw from the 2025-26 fund balance for wrestling, “we strongly recommend funding only equipment and facilities (estimated at $260,000) since it is not feasible to hire coaches, order equipment, assemble teams, coordinate practices, etc., before the December tournament.” Wrestling could then be implemented starting with the 2026-27 school year.

At the Aug. 26 meeting, Maberry agreed to table his wrestling funding proposal for a month for further study. Clarksville Now has reached out to Maberry to confirm whether he plans to bring it back to the board this month. The School Board meets again on Sept. 23, at 6 p.m. at 621 Gracey Ave.

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