Military families welcome Pentagon decision to add middle school sports

Military families that have spent years pushing for middle school sports at Defense Department schools welcomed a Pentagon decision to launch athletic programs for students in grades six through eight worldwide.

The Pentagon’s middle schools will begin offering sports this year, defense officials announced this week, marking the first time a school-sponsored athletic program will be available for children in those grades.

The Department of Defense Education Activity “this winter is expanding athletic opportunities to every DODEA middle schooler worldwide,” Anthony Tata, the defense secretary for personnel and readiness, said on X Wednesday.

“Parents & students asked - @SecWar answered,” he added, referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose department oversees the Pentagon’s network of 161 schools in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Military and civilian families, especially those stationed overseas, have long called for more sports at DODEA middle schools, where extracurricular athletic opportunities have ranged from sparse to nonexistent and fall far short of those at comparable U.S. public schools.

Maribel Jarzabek, an Air Force spouse in Belgium, called the announcement a “phenomenal opportunity.”

“It looks like they took to heart a lot of the parents’ comments on this issue,” she said.

While stationed at Camp Humphreys in South Korea, Jarzabek started a middle school running club after learning that students had no organized school sports. Nearly 90 students joined, she said.

“We had all of these kids who wanted to run, who needed something to do (after school),” Jarzabek said. “And they loved it.”

Her older daughter, Cassie, had participated in a middle school running club while the family lived in Japan, allowing her to continue competing before high school.

“She was able to keep practicing, be in competition with other kids and enhance her skills,” Jarzabek said. Without the running club, Cassie “would not have started until her freshman year” and “would be a few years behind,” she added.

Overseas families often lack access to gym space, YMCA programs and other recreational opportunities available in the United States, said Army spouse Kim Haith, who also advocated for middle school sports while stationed at Camp Humphreys.

“Sports have been shown to improve mental health, provide critical team building skills and allow for students to obtain scholarships to attend colleges they may not have been otherwise able to afford,” said Haith, a mother of three school-age children.

At some bases overseas, DODEA middle schools have allowed students to practice with high school teams in sports such as tennis and cross-country, but often not in competitions.

Other installations have relied on command-sponsored recreational and developmental leagues to fill the gap, such as the Army’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation and the Air Force’s Child and Youth Program.

Those programs, however, often limit the number of participants because of funding constraints and lack of volunteer coaches.

DODEA, which also goes by the Department of Defense Education Activity, did not provide details on which sports will be available at its middle schools and whether programs will be competitive, recreational or a mix of both.

“Schools will receive dedicated funding to successfully launch and sustain these middle school athletic opportunities,” DODEA spokeswoman Jessica Tackaberry said in a statement Wednesday.

The agency plans to coordinate with middle and middle/high schools throughout the fall to support the rollout, she said. The goal is to provide families starting this fall with more information about participation, schedules and other program details, Tackaberry added.

Expanding middle school sports is consistent with a focus by President Donald Trump and Hegseth on physical fitness, she said.

Starting this past spring, DODEA made the Presidential Fitness Test mandatory after Trump signed an executive order to restore it.

The test, which consists of events to gauge core strength, upper body strength and cardiovascular fitness, dates to the 1950s in public schools.

The sports offering for middle schoolers could affect nearly 14,000 students, a number that reflects enrollment in grades six through eight at DODEA schools worldwide as of June, according to agency data.

Some parents of DODEA middle schoolers are already dreaming big.

“We are stationed in Japan with a middle schooler who is obsessed with baseball, as are so many other kids at his school,” said Kara Misiak, in response to Tata’s X post. “Please make sure it is included. It would make them so happy!”