Earlier this year the Alabama High School Athletic Association announced its new realignment for the 2014-2016 school years and not surprisingly, several schools in Dallas County moved up a classification.

Selma became a 6A school, Dallas County moved to 5A and Southside made the jump to 4A.

Now, as our many of our schools rise in classification, we think it is important that each continues to offer as many sports and programs as possible for our children to take part in.

Selma High School announced this week that it is adding a wrestling team, a program the school has never had before.

The addition should make students happy, regardless of whether or not they plan to join the team, because it shows the school and its administrators are open to adding additional programs to keep students engaged.

That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? Our children deserve not only the best opportunities, but also as many of them as possible.

Extracurricular activities keep students out of trouble by putting them in a team environment and simply giving them something to do.

It takes the community to get involved for a program to be successful.

It’s important that the community finds a way to support the new wrestling program, so it can get its footing and be successful.

Just like anything else, athletic programs need money in order to prosper, which is why it is important we all support our local schools and their teams when possible.

Let’s support the wrestling program, volleyball teams and cheerleading squads, so theycan prosper and grow.

If we do, it’s likely our local schools could add sports programs — like tennis, soccer and golf — that many of them don’t currently have, which would just mean additional opportunities for our youth to shine.