BY NICOLE BOWMAN-LAYTON

The creation of a Grades 7-9 football team moved forward earlier this week as the Edenton-Chowan Schools Board of Education approved a proposed timeline and allowed John A. Holmes High School’s Athletic Department to proceed with the team’s formation.

The board meet Monday in regular session at the Professional Development Center, in Edenton. More on the meeting, which included information about the new Health Sciences Academy, can be found by clicking here.

Athletic Director Wes Mattera noted that the timeline will begin in April. Officials at Chowan Middle School, a neighboring school district and a few Western North Carolina schools that operate a Grades 7-9 model provided input on the plan.

“We also shared it with our colleagues in the western part of the state who we’ve been partnering with the entire time,” Mattera said. “I don’t want you to think we came up with this timeline by ourselves. We shared it with the western part of state, a neighboring county, Ms. (Brittany) Lopez and her team (at CMS). So this was a collective effort to put together.”

Mattera said the athletic department hopes to host joint workouts in the summer to help ease the transition into the new program.

“We’re gonna start to try to incorporate the seventh- and eighth-graders into our workout regime, because we think that we can get started this summer and introduce them to those type of expectations and those type of formats that’ll make next summer even easier,” he said. “So it’s gonna be a gradual kind of ease in process. … It makes (summer practice) maybe like a jumpstart for a seventh- and eighth-graders into this program. It’s not just throwing the whole thing at them next summer.”

During the 2025-26 season, CMS will continue to have a Grades 7-8 football team.

“They’ll do their deal this fall,” Mattera said of the CMS team. “We’ll still attempt to field a JV team as much as we can this fall.”

Below is the proposed timeline Mattera shared with the board.

• April 2025

  • Posting and selection of two coaching positions
    • Allotments currently in budget
    • Current CMS coaches must apply if interested
    • Interviews will include and decision will be made by CMS and JAH
    • JAH will determine Head and Assistant JV Coach
    • The JV Head and Assistant JV Coach will be the CMS football coaches for the 2025-26 season
  • Continue meetings with CMS and JAH on alignment of handbooks, procedures, summer workouts, and athlete expectations for 2025-26
  • Prepare information for parents and community
  • Coaching Staff meet with interested athletes (rising seventh-and eighth-graders)
  • Plan budget for 2026-27 start-up costs
• June and July 2025

  • Implement summer workout schedules Grades 7-12
• August-November 2025

  • Communications of handbooks, forms, etc. for the 2025-26 school year
  • Practices and scheduled games for CMS (7-8) team and JAH (9-12) team
• December 2025 to February 2026

  • Inventory helmet and shoulder pad equipment
  • Proceed with reconditioning and new orders for the 2026-27 season
  • Continue ECPS alignment meetings and community communications
  • Finalize purchases for the 2026-27 start-up
• March-May 2026

  • Finalize transportation plans and, if changes are required, add to 2027-28 budget proposal
  • CMS spring visit for prospective players
  • Implement summer workout schedule
• August 2026

  • Beginning of JV 7-9 model practice and games

Finances

In regards to the financial aspect, Mattera gave a list of projected start-up costs totaling $14,400.

Future revenues and expenses would be part of the high school’s Athletic Department funds. Expenses beyond start-up will follow the current division between the district’s local funds and the high school’s Athletic Department funds.

Start-up post expenditures begin after the conference confirms the JV 7-9 model.

Projected start-up costs:

• Athletic Trainer Supplies: $500
• Concussion Baseline: As of the time of the meeting, ECU Health agreed to cover this expense, Mattera said.
• Reconditioning CMS Helmets: $4,000
• Potential replacements (four helmets at $1,656 and seven should pads at $980): $3,000
• Workout and Game Gear: $6,900
• Total: $14,400

Mattera also noted the CMS football program’s finances, saying that the high school didn’t want to leave the middle school’s athletic department in “any type of deficit.”

• Gate Receipts: $3,330
• Booster Club (Membership/Concessions): $2,221
• Total Revenue: $5,551
• Expenses: $2,950
• Potential Revenue Loss for CMS: $2,601

Also during the meeting, Mattera told that board that John A. Holmes High School go into the new Class 2A, Albemarle Athletic Conference. The move comes after the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Board of Directors voted to adopt the 2025-29 realignment plan on March 3.

The Aces were realigned into Class 2A and will join the all new conference starting the 2025-26 academic year and lasting until 2029. The conference’s name has been used in previous years.

The conference includes Manteo, Gates County, Perquimans County, Camden County and Bertie County high schools.

At a previous meeting, Mattera mentioned that the other schools in the conference are also looking to switch to the Grade 7-9 football model. Their respective athletic departments will go before their boards of education for approval.