Washington, Pekin dissolve soccer partnership

WASHINGTON — The Demon soccer program will no longer include members from Pekin, after the Washington School board voted Wednesday night to dissolve a sharing agreement with the smaller school.

School officials said they’d heard no interest in registering for the team from students at the high school 34 miles away in Packwood, and opted to end the agreement, bumping Washington down from a Class 3A team to 2A as a result.

Washington Head Soccer Coach Sally Hart said the agreement started in 2015. While only four Pekin students have traveled to Washington for the sport since then, she said those who did were highly impactful players.

The list, in total, includes former team captains Simeon Buie and Levi Rohr, plus Isaac Gentry — who graduated this year after making the All-Southeast Conference list — as well as multi-sport athlete KJ Rohr.

“They were all great leaders, they all contributed greatly, and it was a wonderful partnership,” Hart said. “It was just, there’s no sense continuing it at this point.”

The move from Class 3A to 2A means Washington will face different schools in the playoffs next season, although regular season games will be unchanged.

Hart was hesitant to say the games would be any easier for Washington’s soccer team as a result, but said they would certainly be different.

“There’s good soccer in Iowa at every level,” she said. “We just need to continue preparing like we have been, putting in the hard work in the off-season, playing our game when it comes season, and we’ll continue having the success that we’ve seen built up recently.”

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The Demons recently wrapped up a strong year, with three students making the academic all-state team, one on the all-state roster and a playoff finish one step away from qualifying for state, after a loss to fifth-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier in late May. The Saints went on to lose their match against Cedar Rapids Washington a week later, in a 0-2 tally.

While the Washington boys soccer team hopes to do better next year, members celebrated an 11-win record in 2024, their best performance in recent memory.

“Washington soccer has grown all the way from preschool level all the way to varsity level. A big part of that is the WASP program,” Hart told The Union after the loss in Cedar Rapids. “A lot of these guys that are graduating were my first (Washington Area Soccer Program) guys, and they're building a legacy in Washington that is going to be really strong.”

Washington Activities Director Nathan Miller said the dissolution was amicable, and that Pekin had not objected to the plan in discussions ahead of Wednesday night’s school board meeting.

“We only had one athlete from Pekin participating last year, and he was a senior,” Miller said. “We’ve had a great relationship with Pekin the last few years with it, and at this point it’s just basically time to dissolve that and move down to class 2A.”

The Southeast Iowa Union’s Andy Krutsinger contributed to this report.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com