Gillett and Suring school officials are having conversations about expanding their sports team co-ops, the Gillett School Board was told June 27.
Athletic director Michael Kaczmarek emphasized that any talks are very preliminary, but the two school districts are coping with declining numbers.
“Right now we co-op three sports — baseball, softball, wrestling — and that’s been successful for us, so now we want to expand that and look at all of our sports,” Kaczmarek said. “We just want to compile that information, Suring’s doing the same thing, and see if it would be feasible to do that.”
One item on the agenda is to look at a thriving cooperative between two districts just to the north, he said.
“We want to reach out to Laona/Wabeno because their co-op has been very successful for probably the last 15 years,” Kaczmarek said. “We want to reach out to them and see how they have made that merger of the two athletic programs.”
Suring has some classes that have as few as 15 or 16 students, and while Gillett’s classes are larger than that, participation on sports teams has been dropping, he said.
Kaczmarek emphasized that the talks are very preliminary, and he recognized the matter will be a hard sell with some people.
“Small schools — your school is your town’s identity, so we know that will be a big issue, but we just want to start the research now,” he said. “We’re looking down the road maybe three years out, two or three years.”
At least one sport might continue to have separate Suring and Gillett teams: Kaczmarek said the WIAA rules governing volleyball would move a combined Gillett/Suring team from Division 5 all the way to Division 3 in tournament play, putting the co-op at the same level as larger schools like Oconto Falls and Luxemburg-Casco.
“I don’t think that’s fair to our kids,” Kaczmarek said.
He emphasized that the process is in its very early stages with a decision years away.
“I just want to make you aware of it, so if you hear anything in the community, that’s what we’re doing, we’re just trying to compile information,” Kaczmarek said.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
