Saxony Lutheran High School plunges into the prep sports mix

It may be just a blip, but another area high school has found its way onto the area's athletic radar screen.

Saxony Lutheran High School of Cape Girardeau has become a member of the Missouri State High School Activities Association and will field a boys basketball team for the upcoming season.

Athletic director John Daniel, who will also serve as the coach, is scrambling to line up junior varsity and freshman opponents for the maiden season.

"We'll play any JV or freshman team that wants to play us," Daniel said.

Daniel, an assistant coach to Southeast Missouri State University men's coach Gary Garner last season, said plans are in the work to play Notre Dame's JV once and Notre Dame's freshman team a couple of times. Daniel has strong ties with Notre Dame, having launched his coaching career as an assistant to former Bulldog head coach Chris Janet, now the school's athletic director.

Daniel said the schedule will be upgraded to junior-varsity and varsity opponents next season, when it will compete in a Class 1A district tournament. He expects a pure varsity schedule the following year.

"It will be difficult to schedule for a year or two, but we'll get through it," Daniel said.

Saxony Lutheran High School, beginning its third year, expects to have a school enrollment of 30 students in grades 9-12 this year. The school received accreditation through the National Lutheran School Accreditation, which resulted in quick admission to MSHSAA and cleared the way for a basketball program that could schedule MSHSAA opponents.

Daniel decided to launch the basketball team when he received playing commitments from one sophomore and six incoming freshmen, including a female.

The school will also participate in other MSHSAA competitions involving cheerleading, band, music, speech and academics.

New building planned

Saxony has extensive growth plans, including a 36,000 square foot high school on 41 acres near Fruitland, Mo., which it hopes to begin building next year and occupy by the 2004-05 school year. The facility, which will be able to accommodate 150 students, has plans for softball, baseball and soccer fields, as well as a track.

Saxony is in its initial phase of its fund-raising for the school

For the time being, Saxony Lutheran will be calling home a three-building arrangement at the corner of Kingshighway and Cape Rock Road which can handle an enrollment of 75-100 students. St. Andrew Lutheran Church has a multi-purpose room in its basement, while an adjacent wood-floor gymnasium houses Daniel's office and a few more classrooms. A third building contains a science room.

The high school, with an annual tuition of $2,400, was started by 21 Lutheran congregations ranging from Perryville, Mo., to Sikeston, Mo., and is fed by five Lutheran grades schools -- Trinity (Cape Girardeau), St. Paul (Jackson), Concordia (CTLS, Frohna), Salem (Farrar) and Immanuel (Perryville). The five schools combined for 71 eighth-graders last year -- a typical number -- and the school believes it's realistic, according to national averages, to think half of those will eventually attend Saxony Lutheran.

The current group of freshman -- 15 -- is the largest yet, as is the overall enrollment of 30. The school had seven students the first year and 19 the second.

Saxony Lutheran principal Tom Kiehne said sports is a key factor in recruiting students.

"We're surrounded by solid, good public schools," Kiehne said. "Our biggest challenge in recruiting students to Saxony is offering what they offer and something else."

Co-curricular activities, beyond sports, are important to both Kiehne and Daniel.

"My goal is build the school to the point where it's a mainstream school with every potential activity before my own kids get here," said Daniel, who also holds the title of director of enrollment and instant father. He married in June to his wife, Kim, who has four children, ages 2 to 6, and the pair expects a fifth child in March.

"You don't leave an assistant position at a Division I school working with a great guy like Gary Garner if your No. 1 priority is your basketball career," he added. "I came here to grow the school for my own kids."

Daniel said the addition of sports will be based on demand and commitments from the student body, rather than on a preset timetable.

"The worst thing we can do as a start-up school is beg other schools to put us on their schedule and then have kids quit and then not have a team," Daniel said. "So we'll go slower rather than faster with the start up of sports, but yet we hope to offer every MSHSAA team and activities as soon as possible."

Volleyball may be the next sport added, with softball, girls basketball and track -- sports generally offered at its feeder schools in grades 5-8-- among probable future additions.

The maiden voyage

Daniel said the gym can hold about 150 fans, but expects most of its games over the next two seasons to be played on the road.

He views the incoming freshmen students who will play basketball as pioneers.

"They're making it popular to go to Saxony," Daniel said. "Before they leave here it will be popular."

Freshman Casey Petzoldt attended CTLS and likes the idea of being a member of Saxony's first team.

"I've been on small teams all through grade school," Petzoldt said. "I'm glad I'll be playing on a small team cause you get a lot more playing time."

Petzoldt said it's not a big deal that the school only offers one sport.

"I just like basketball," he said. "I wouldn't have been interested in playing any other ones."

jbreer@semissourian.com

(573) 335-6611, extension 124