It’s about time to release the Hounds.

Hoven High School, which has been a part of three different cooperatives in the past 25 years, is back on its own for sports and there is plenty of energy in the air this fall.

“It’s exciting. (Last week) we had our first football team go play,” said Hoven athletic director Jonie Abler. “Mind you they are JV, but that was the first time they were the Greyhounds since 1997. … We had a great sized crowd for the first game, especially since it was an away game.”

Hoven was most recently a part of a cooperative with Gettysburg that was dissolved last spring. Interestingly enough, the number of students who decided to go for sports this fall at Hoven nearly doubled since then, according to Abler. Of the 37 students in high school, 33 of them are out for sports. All of the 26 middle school students are currently out for a sport this year.

“I think this has been easier on the student-athletes’ daily schedules to have a full school day followed by all their practices and games being in their hometown vs. commuting,” Adler said. “Especially since our school day starts at 8 a.m., which is about 20 minutes earlier than most schools.”

Abler said while the numbers are light in high school right now, they are strong in the middle school and elementary, and students have indicated they want to compete in sports.

“We just have to get through these next couple of years of this rebuilding and get those middle schoolers up to high school level,” Abler said.

Abler said the goal is to restart every varsity sports program that the current students want. Of course, some are a bit more a challenge than others like football, which takes numbers and funds for equipment.

“We want to compete at all varsity levels, but until our numbers are right, I don’t want to put our kids in harm’s way,” Abler said of the timing to restore varsity football.

She said the school board has already approved having six-man football should the state ever decide to go that direction.

In the meantime, Hoven has spent $62,000 for so far for equipment for fall sports and will be adding more funding in the future for winter sports.

Abler is trying her best to keep the junior varsity sports as close to a varsity-level experience as possible. That includes having JV football with the traditional Friday night lights atmosphere.

“It is trying,” Abler said, “but you want to make this a good experience for your kids and as relatable as you can to what it would have been for them.”

Hoven is set to host its annual Greyhound Invitational Cross Country meet on Wednesday. The numbers for that event have been strong.

“We’re a good central location,” Abler said. “I’ve got 18 schools lined up to come.”

Plans call for a football field dedication on homecoming Sept. 19 to honor longtime coach Norm Stethem. Abler said former athletes are planning to fly back for the ceremony.

While trying to restore programs has been a challenge, Abler can see the buzz that has been generated because of it.

“It’s been trying too, but the excitement outweighs that,” she said. “We are offering every sport, unless there is zero interest.”

Abler said that the Hoven community is witnessing a resurgence which goes hand-in-hand with the restoration of the sports programs.

“We have a very thriving community. The amount of people that are younger that have moved back or that have brought their families back that grew up here is actually unheard of. There’s new excitement, because there’s younger families involved as well,” Abler said. “We’ve also got the people that were the former Hoven Greyhounds from however many years ago that are super excited to see this be a staple again amongst our community.”

Abler said the work has been done to guage the interest of the students concerning sports and also discussions about the commitment level it will take on their part to make it work.

In short, it all comes down to providing the best educational experience for the students, whether in the classroom or in the athletic arena.

“We’re just eager to service our kids, and so we listen to them. We’re going to do the most we can to give them what they need to be able to compete, not only athletically, but academically,” Abler said. “We’re listening to their input and so we’re doing everything we can in our power to make sure that we don’t lose kids because we don’t have anything here for them.”