The Bancroft-Rosalie School Board has been in discussions with Lyons-Decatur to identify ways the schools can work together to provide opportunities for students. Lyons-Decatur has low numbers of girls in junior high classes right now which will make it difficult for them to have junior high girls teams. That same problem will affect Bancroft-Rosalie junior high boys teams in the future, as evidenced by the lack of a broncos baseball team in town this year.
Both school boards discussed cooping junior high sports at their June board meetings. The Bancroft-Rosalie Board is open to the idea of starting the coop this fall. The Superintendents and athletic directors from both schools will meet at the end of June to work out the details and have a proposal for the boards to act on at their July board meetings.
Lyons-Decatur has requested that the coop include high school sports after two years. The thought is that after playing together for two years, the students should continue together in high school. Their concern is that if we continue to have two separate high school teams, the students may choose to option enroll in order to continue to play together.
The inability of Bancroft-Rosalie to have our own summer youth sports teams this year tells me that we need to start planning for the future. Lyons-Decatur has allowed our high school girls to play softball with them and this summer they have taken our bronco age baseball boys. There are talks they we may also share youth football (grades 3-6) this fall. Our parents and students have initiated a relationship with Lyons-Decatur that has been mutually beneficial to all of the communities involved. If the details can be worked out, I support trying the cooperative for junior high sports for two years and see how the students and parents get along, then look at cooping high school sports.
