The Highland school board has its work cut out for them when it comes to deciding the future of athletics in the district.
The reason is numbers. It is becoming harder each year to attract the numbers to field teams at both varsity and JV levels and often freshmen are playing varsity sports before they are ready. The future does not appear to be much brighter with the district seeing enrollment drops and more students open enrolling out than in.
In fact with the numbers available for football and the ability to field a competitive team there is talk about students wanting to play football taking the open enrollment out path. One mother commented at a meeting to discuss the future of football and volleyball as stand alone sports that there is already movement for boys open enrolling in another district to play.
But there is a process for that and it is yet to be a reality.
While as one person put it, cooping sports is inevitable and the district should be out ahead of it. Yet another said she will always be a Cardinal and advocates keeping the programs and attracting kids to play.
The district is in discussion with Iowa-Grant where they already successfully co-op in wrestling. Highland also co-ops in gymnastics with Dodgeville, Mineral Point and Iowa- Grant.
And next year the two districts will co-op in baseball and softball. It is also expected Highland will join I-G for cross country, track and field and golf.
Concerns with co-oping center around fair participation and allowing Highland coaches to be part of the co-ops. The baseball contract has I-G providing the head coach with Highland coaches being considered but not being guaranteed a spot with the varsity. If an I-G head coach leaves the position both schools would be involved in finding a replacement.
It was also noted that where games are played depends on the amount of participation from the two schools.
There are deadlines that have to be met for fall sports. Everything must be finalized by October 1. Co-ops are for two years.
The school board met last night with co-op with I-G on the agenda.
At last Wednesday’s meeting district residents were asked to share their thoughts to help the board make their decisions. At the meeting the football and volleyball coaches felt they have the numbers to compete at least for this year.
Other facts shared at the Wednesday meeting included:
-Choosing to participate is declining with more boys than girls choosing to not go out for a sport.
-Numbers in volleyball are projected at 14, 12 and 11 over the next few seasons.
-There are no cuts for co-ops -Co-oping could affect divisional placement for the host school.
-Football numbers in the future are projected at 17, 24, 17, 17 which the coaches feel will work for 8 person.