(KNZA)--Hiawatha High School will be adding a baseball program beginning in the spring of 2018.

Superintendent Penny Hargrove informed the Hiawatha school board Monday evening that the $20,000 needed to fund the first two years of the program has been raised.  

Board Clerk Leslie Grimm says the last of the funds needed were submitted to the district last week.

A group of patrons approached the Board in August about adding the sport, saying they had secured pledges for the funding needed to begin the program.

The Board told the group the district would need the money in hand by February 1st of this year to add the sport beginning in the spring of 2018.

Hiawatha is currently the only Big 7 League school without a baseball program.

A local effort several years ago to add a baseball program fell short of raising the funds needed.