Granton has few options left for continued varsity sports
With no co-oping options forthcoming for the 2020-21 school year, the Granton School Board is being forced to look at an in-house solution for at least the next year to try and keep its current sports programs afloat with low numbers of student participation.
At its meeting on March 9, the Board received an update from Board member and special committee member Paul Knoff on the search for a potential co-oping partner for the next school year for its sports programs. As of the meeting, Knoff said the district has reached out to both the Loyal School District and the Marshfield Columbus School District, but only received an offer of a middle school co-op from Loyal.
“I met with Joe Konieczny (the athletic director at Marshfield Columbus) just to discuss things,” he said. “He was sympathetic to what we’re going through. He would like to help, but the Board is split down the middle, he did not think it would be approved, I don’t think it’s a viable option.”
Having no co-op agreements on the table, Board President Theresa Hasz said the Board will not be rushing to make a decision on what to do for its sports next year as they no longer have to worry about the WIAA April 1 co-oping deadline. However, she said they will continue to discuss what options they do have left for their sports programs and make a decision in the coming months.
“There really is no perfect solution here,” she said. “We’ll do what’s best for our kids.”
What is best for the kids may end up being a switch from varsity teams to running junior varsity. In further discussion at the meeting, community members and the Board talked about current numbers, the experience level of those athletes, and whether or not having only JV teams for sports such as baseball and boys basketball would bring more kids in or drive them away.
Baseball and boys basketball were the two sports receiving the most attention during the discussion. Looking at numbers for next year, it is expected that the girls basketball team should have enough players to at least field a varsity team, but numbers for boys basketball are expected to be too low to field one.
“Just drop the boys to JV and move the girls to a different conference so they’ll be more competitive,” said Caroline Walter. “I think it’s going to kill us if we lose our sports … We need to build their confidence up. I have middle school kids who want to play varsity basketball, I hear it every day. I think we need to go JV for the boys, we’ve done it with the girls, maybe it will help.”
For baseball, the number of participants isn’t the worst problem they’re facing, it’s a lack of experience. For this season, a total of 12 boys and girls are signed up to play baseball and of that number, parents said nine had never played baseball before, making it even harder for players to compete against other schools.
“We’re supposed to run a varsity baseball team (this year), that’s not a good idea,” said Knoff. “We’re starting 12 kids, nine have never played baseball in their life. We can’t have that as a varsity sport. We’re being delusional, it’s not going to happen. We’ve done our absolute best, but we need to stop sticking our heads in the sand, it’s nobody’s fault, guys, it’s nobody’s fault.”
The inexperience, Knoff said, also makes it dangerous for those players that do know how to play the sport as those are the ones likely to be carrying the team through the season.
“Lopsided sports have no educational value, there’s more unsportsmanlike conduct and it puts undue pressure on a pitcher’s arm,” he said. “The only way for them to get an out is a strikeout. (I remember playing as pitcher) one game up in Loyal, I thought my arm was going to fall off, this year’s pitcher will feel the same way.”
A couple parents at the meeting asked the Board whether or not having JV sports programs will actually help alleviate the problem. For some kids, they said playing on varsity holds more value than playing on a JV team, giving some kids less incentive to continue playing.
“As far as boys dropping back to JV, I’ll be really surprised if they all keep playing,” said Dennis Jakobi. “In the next three years we have a total of six kids coming up. Going back to JV isn’t going to help it. It’s a complete waste of our time. I’ve talked to Neillsville and they’ve been practicing already for six weeks, a lot of (our) kids haven’t even played baseball.”
While the Board recognized this, they said there really are no other options left for them to try.
“This might be the slow death, but I don’t see any other option,” said Board treasurer John Richmond. “At least this is an option. We got to do what we can. If we’re going down, I’m going to go down bailing the ship as I can. It’s either a slow death or a quick one.”
Post-season honors
Loyal senior basketball players Kole Bogdonovich and Remi Geiger each earned multiple honors at the end of their recent seasons. Kole was named co-player of the year in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference along with Neillsville’s Alex King and was named first-team allconference. He was also named as all-state honorable mention by the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association. Remi was a first-team all-state selection by the WBCA and was also named the ECC’s player of the year and first-team allconference.
