Westminster Christian to add football

Westminster Christian School will be adding a middle school football program this fall, and the high school intends to field a varsity team in 2014.

The Westminster Christian board approved the addition of football at its meeting Monday night, athletic director Rick Palmer said Thursday.

“We’re excited about it,” Palmer said. “Now we have to raise some money.”

Westminster Christian, whose current enrollment under IHSA guidelines for private schools is 346.5, won’t have a home field on campus immediately, although Palmer hopes to see that in the future.

“We’re partnering with the South Elgin Patriots (youth football organization), and we’ll be using their facilities initially, for three years at least,” Palmer said. “The goal is to have a home field soon, we just don’t know when.”

Palmer said that two years ago the school did a 9-10 month study on the feasibility of adding football.

“At that time we didn’t have quite the interest or a point person,” Palmer said. “Now we have the point person in John Davis, who is associated with the South Elgin Patriots.”

Palmer said the plan is to institute football at the sixth, seventh and eighth grade levels this fall and then being playing middle school and JV schedules in 2012 and 2013 before fielding a varsity team in 2014.