Future of football co-op discussed at public meeting

The future of the Wessington Springs-Woonsocket-Sanborn Central football co-op was the topic of discussion at a public meeting held Monday, December 18. The meeting was organized by the Wessington Springs School District Board of Education and administration. Enrollment numbers for the three schools combined support competing in 11-man football. If Wessington Springs were to leave the co-op, enrollment together from Sanborn-Central and Woonsocket would continue to support 11-man, however, Wessington Springs, if it were to participate on its own, would move to 9-man football.

Of the 54 people in attendance, seven were students and those present were invited to share in an open discussion with the board after a brief presentation made by the board.

“The board has not made a decision and a decision will not be made tonight,” said school board Chairman Todd Grohs as he opened the meeting. “We are here to gather information from the community and the board will make a decision at the January meeting.”

Slides were presented on a screen and outlined both the benefits and challenges of belonging to the Blackhawks co-op.

On the benefit side of the spectrum, the board outlined that the combined student enrollment of the three schools supports the 11-man format for varsity, junior varsity and junior high.

Additionally, costs for coaches officials and equipment are shared and student athlete numbers comprised of the three schools combined provides a larger pool of students and a deeper bench. As for younger students, benefits outlined included opportunities to play more JV and junior high games with other districts.

“With the co-op numbers, we can confidently fill junior high and JV,” Grohs pointed out.

Current issues with Wessington Springs being part of the co-op include daily travel to Woonsocket for practice and travel to games at Sanborn-Central.

“Springs East is no big deal but it’s a challenge for those living west of Springs,” Grohs said. “The same goes for Sanborn and east coming this way.”

Playing time, home games and team branding as Blackhawks were touted as additional concerns.

“I do want to point out that when we had another co-op meeting with the other two schools we had a discussion about other names if we stayed. They would stay Blackhawks with their other sports but we would all choose a different name for the stand alone football co-op,” Grohs added.

The presentation then turned to potential challenges for Wessington Springs if the school were to leave the current football co-op. Additional costs for coaching, officials and rebranding the team to Spartans were discussed, alongside lower student athlete numbers for junior high and JV. Finally, student enrollment needed to support 9-man football in the future was discussed along with enrollment projections.

Before opening the floor for comments, the presentation highlighted benefits of moving from 11-man to 9-man football which included more home games at Spartan Field, reduced travel to games and elimination of travel for practices. The presentation also listed the potential of more students willing to participate if it were a Spartan team.

When the board opened the meeting to questions and comments, Gerry Orth asked about the criteria for moving to 11-man.

“It goes by total boys enrollment. With a co-op, it is treated as one school. Online enrollment does not count toward that,” Grohs explained.

Charley Larson expressed concerns about future enrollment.

“If all of a sudden we don’t have the numbers, my concern is looking five to six years down the road,” Larson said. “Where will we go if we don’t have enough for a program?”

Grohs said that his hope is that Wessington Springs does continue to have the numbers and no matter what decision is made, the board and administration’s priorities are to keep a good relationship with the other schools.

“Every two years we talk about the co-op. The reason it came up now is that every two years it comes up for scheduling. The board and administration has gotten questions about doing our own thing, so this year we are going to ask the question,” Grohs explained, also pointing out that the co-op has been in place for 17 years. “We talked to the other schools and they know we are having this meeting tonight and getting feedback from community.'

Jennifer Kolousek, expressed concern about the future of the relationship with the other schools. Currently the three schools also have a youth football co-op for third through sixth graders.

“I worry about the relationship if we do decide to split. Looking ahead there are only a couple of boys in second grade,” Kolousek said.

Larson added, “If we don’t have that youth program and don’t get to play earlier is it going to affect the numbers and success moving up. I’m here as a parent and nothing else. If we split at the middle school high school level then maybe we lose our little kid program,” Larson said.

Kevin Mebius, who said he has coached at the youth football level for six years, asked about the original purpose of forming the co-op.

Athletic Director Jason Kolousek said it was due to a lack of numbers.

“There were no JV games and hardly any junior high games,” Kolousek said. “We were playing 8th graders on varsity.”

Community discussion about traveling for practice and sustainable enrollment numbers ensued.

“It’s going to be give and take and not one is going to be perfect when you’re talking 9-man and 11-man,” Grohs said. “We need to figure out what’s best for all our students.'

Christy Christensen took the floor. “I have a big problem with those enrollment numbers. It’s been a lot of years building this program,” she said.

Mike Poncleow added, “Take that two years from now and it looks a lot more bleak going nine man. We are looking at the peak now and it goes nowhere but down,” he said.

One of the students and football player Robbie Hine, a junior, offered a comment,” I think we’d be better in the playoffs as 9-man.”

Mebius brought up his experience coaching youth football.

“My perspective from coaching youth for six years is that you get to know their personalities, their strengths. Then they go to a co-op team and a different coach and they play less and less,” he said. “My goal is to keep that kid interested enough in the next year. Keep those junior high kids interested so they’ll be into it in 9th grade.”

Deanna Hasty, who alongside her husband is one of the organizers in the youth football co-op said, “I see both sides. I do worry about not enough enrollment numbers but with so many kids in the co-op there are so many not getting play time.”

Once everyone in attendance was able to share, the board closed the meeting.

“Keep in mind, what you want might not be what your neighbor siting next to you wants. We don’t need division in our community,” Grohs said. “We will make a decision at the next board meeting. Please feel free to call any one of us and voice your concerns.”

Larson summed up the weight of the upcoming decision.

'You have a tough decision but it’s important to remember whatever decision is made we as a community need to stick together,” Larson said, then turned his comment to the board. “Thank you for involving the community and having this meeting.”

The board invites the community to share comments through January 5, 2024 at the following survey link https://forms.office.com/r/GjVBDcWc5U