VIDEO: Houlka Attendance Center Discontinues Its Football And Cheerleading Programs

HOULKA, Miss. (WCBI)- After months of discussions about whether to keep or get rid its football team, a decision has finally been made.

On Monday, the Chickasaw County School District voted unanimously to eliminate the football program Houlka Attendance Center.

“It saddens me that they discontinued the football team because our players and students have a lot of potential to play the sport,” said Shalaunda Berry, who was upset with the board’s decision.

Berry has faithfully followed the football program at for three years now

“We love traveling with the football team every Friday night whether it’s close or far away, we enjoy traveling with the football team every weekend.”

But now she’s disappointed that she has to find something else to take up her time on Fridays.

The program was formed in 2008.

After the decision was made to discontinue the program, head football coach Sid Burt said he was not upset with the vote.

The head coach said it was ultimately a lack of participation that led to this outcome.

A majority of his players were skipping summer practices, which sent a message that they no longer wanted to play on the team.

“A lot of it with has to do with not having discipline and not a lot of dedication,” Berry explained. “We don’t have a lot of students at our school so they have to choose between the sports and a lot of them chose to play basketball versus playing another sport, so a lot of it is discipline and dedication. We need some more discipline and dedication.”

However, the football program wasn’t the only program to get eliminated, board members also decided to discontinue the cheerleading team.

Although Berry hates there will be no more Friday Night Football in Houlka, she’s confident it’ll return.

In fact, she has an idea on how to instill the discipline and dedication in the players moving forward.

“Show them that football can be fun, said Berry. “Show them that if they work together as a team they can be a winning team. Show them that we can do that, just mostly showing them how to become a better team by pulling together.”