Adding Walhalla recreation offerings

Chairman Danny Woodward of the Walhalla city council recreation committee wants to gauge interest in adding two programs to the city’s recreation offerings.  However, after hearing from recreation director John Galbreath, adding volleyball and flag football are easier said than done.  Galbreath says there are drawbacks, including the lack of adequate staff to make it happen.  The recreation department employs only four full-time employees, fewer than those who work at city recreation departments in Seneca and Clemson.  Woodward explained that Walhalla High athletic officials believe their volleyball and football programs would be enhanced if volleyball and flag football were offered at the city level.  The recreation department offers regular youth football.  But there’s interest in starting a flag football program to introduce the sport to kids at an even younger age.  Galbreath has mixed feeling about flag football, a variant of American football in which, in place of tackling players, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier.  The recreation director believes kids who start in flag football often give up football when they graduate to the rougher level of the sport.