Loyal board agrees to co-op middle school track with Greenwood

By Valorie Brecht The Loyal School Board has decided to move forward with a middle school track and field co-op with Greenwood, to provide opportunities for Greenwood middle school students that would not otherwise get to participate.

At a special school board meeting last Wednesday, Loyal School District Administrator Chris Lindner reported that he had talked to varsity track and field head coach Jim Genteman about the switch, as well as middle school coaches Rebekah Smith and Kristin Ikert. He said he had gotten a letter from Genteman late that afternoon stating he had mixed feelings about the co-op, and that both Ikert and Smith felt comfortable and fine about bringing the Greenwood kids over and having them compete on a joint Loyal-Greenwood team.

The numbers as of the meeting were: 14 Loyal girls, six Loyal boys, two Greenwood girls and six Greenwood boys wanting to participate in middle school track.

Ikert, who is also a cross categorical special education teacher at Loyal, spoke at the meeting.

“So our Neillsville meet next Friday, I ran hypothetical numbers for that meet. With Greenwood’s kids, we can fit all girls in three full events potentially with extra spaces as well, that we might not be able to fill an entire team. Boys is less numbers so again, girls have more and if girls can fit that, the guys will be able to fit. Most meets at the middle school level, if they do have limited entries — we’re looking at three or four limited entries — we can fit all our athletes in, with Greenwood’s athletes, without limiting anybody’s participation… We’re definitely open to them coming over and don’t foresee numbers being an issue at all,” she said.

At the school board meeting the week before, a couple of parents had expressed concerns over whether there would be enough coaches to oversee and help all the athletes in a combined program. However, Smith said she didn’t foresee that as a problem, either.

“Coach Smith and I will be at the meets, and Matt (Kubista) will also be at all but one of those meets at the middle school level. And we do have some volunteers that will maybe be at some of those meets as well. So numbers is not a concern,” said Ikert.

School board president Dennis Roehl asked if the co-op would benefit the Loyal kids, because he said that was the question the board would be asked.

“I don’t see how it would hurt Loyal,” Ikert replied. “With boys, it should help because they’ll be able to field multiple relay teams. Track is, in a lot of ways, an individual sport, but there’s also the team aspect.”

Board member Derek Weyer asked if the Greenwood students would be coming to Loyal for all the practices. Chris Lindner said yes, that would be the plan, and the students would ride the softball bus to Loyal and back.

Weyer also asked for more clarity on if another coach would be needed, as there had been some discussion at the last meeting about that.

“I think we’ll be fine, and with Chief (Kubista) there as well, so far we’ve been working with the high school. And the programs that I’ve been a part of, the high school and middle school do kind of work together when it comes to, especially field events when you have the specialty coaches and jumping and the throwing and those things. We share those coaches and even utilize the older athletes to step into some of those leadership roles too and help those younger kids progress,” said Ikert.

Holly Lindner made a motion to co-op middle school track for Loyal and Greenwood, “with all of those stipulations” previously laid out in the conversation. Tom Odeen seconded.

Weyer asked if the motion was only for one year, to be re-evaluated at the end of the year.

“I would hate to take it on a trial basis and in a year say, ‘No, we’ve got enough kids; we don’t want you.’ We know what happens when we don’t continue relationships with other schools on sports. We can sure evaluate it and see how we can improve it, but – some of these kids have been playing together since youth sports. I would have a hard time saying no a year from now. That’s my personal feeling,” said Odeen.

He also said that it was not as if the high school was contingent on the middle school decision.

“There was some discussion on keeping the teams separate (Greenwood and Loyal would practice together, but compete on separate teams at meets), but I don’t like that. I think if we’re one team, we’re one team.,” Odeen added.

“I think I agree,” said Holly Lindner. “But I think we can do an evaluation on how we can improve the program. Because there will always be bumps in the road.”

“Because we should always be striving to do better,” said Weyer.

“Mhmm,” said Holly Lindner. The board voted unanimously to approve the middle school track co-op.

The middle school team is scheduled to have a meet this Friday at 4:30 p.m. at the Neillsville High School fieldhouse.