Elwood Cancels Footbasll Season ???
- Thread starter n11784
- Start date
Wow! Another sad day for another small Nebraska town.
Here's another example: Maywood and Hayes Center COMBINED only have 13 kids out for football!
Alumni, (or somebody else) do you have data on how many Nebraska HS football teams there were in 1990 and how many there are in 2015? I'll bet the difference is staggering.
Here's another example: Maywood and Hayes Center COMBINED only have 13 kids out for football!
Alumni, (or somebody else) do you have data on how many Nebraska HS football teams there were in 1990 and how many there are in 2015? I'll bet the difference is staggering.
Sad that they just can't go play for Arapahoe or Eustis-Farnam.
Towns and schools should look at this and make sure it doesn't happen to them, consolidation is the only way to go.
Towns and schools should look at this and make sure it doesn't happen to them, consolidation is the only way to go.
I disagree with this statement. Consolidation is only needed when the school is unable to provide a quality education to the students due to budgets/buildings, staff, numbers etc. A small town losing it's school is usually a death sentence to the town over time. Keep the schools in small towns if at all possible. Your hometown has gone through these same discussions, and despite a lot of negative talk, have been fairly competitive in recent years throughout most of their athletics.
A coop however could have been understandable, and was probably warranted. However, not being in the shoes of the school administration/board, I don't know the circumstances. It being the 2nd year of the 2 year cycle, maybe they had poor oversight, or maybe they had a bunch of kids they were counting on not go out, transfers, injuries, eligibility, etc. Also, maybe they have larger classes coming through the lower grades that this is only a one year issue.
If I had kids I would rather have them playing on a football team with 30-40 kids than 8-15. You don't get better, you can't practice. I'm fine with co-ops at some level, but having a school like say Maywood open is crazy, when Curtis is 6 miles away. Maywood as a town has nothing, losing the school will change very little. It's not fair to the kids.
Each town can keep a elementary school, then have the Jr. High on one town and the high school in the other.
Another example of two programs that are getting ahead are Lyons-Decatur and Bancroft-Rosalie. They will start co-oping sports next fall and I'm excited for those kids. Hopefully they will be more competitive and the kids will enjoy games and practices more.
It's going to happen anyways, might as well get a head of it if your school is struggling.
I agree that consolidation needs to happen. The town will not die because they don't have a school. Palisade has had a population of around 300 for over 30 years. Not sure when Palisade and Wauneta merged, but it was in the early 90's or so. Iowa schools consolidated years ago, and it seems to work well for them.
I think it is somewhat of a fallacy to think that a small town will "die" if the school is closed. I would like to see a list of towns in the last 20 years that have consolidated and that was the sole reason the town died. The common trend recently is for graduates to go to Omaha, Lincoln or bigger cities / towns. 30 years ago, kids would come back and take over the family business and start a family. That is the reason small towns are drying up, in my opinion. As a result small towns / schools have to be proactive and work to stay self-sustainable.
Just got word Banner County has canceled the rest of their season as well. As a coach I can't imagine what that feels like to have to stop playing because literally there is just no other option, very sad.
[QUOTE="northeastNebraska, post: 23985, member: 1692"
Another example of two programs that are getting ahead are Lyons-Decatur and Bancroft-Rosalie. They will start co-oping sports next fall and I'm excited for those kids. Hopefully they will be more competitive and the kids will enjoy games and practices more.
It's going to happen anyways, might as well get a head of it if your school is struggling.[/QUOTE]
LDNE and BR are co-oping not merging. My initial argument was not against cooping, it was against merging when that is not needed. Merging is permanent, and can not be undone in most cases. It It requires a lot of commitment from a lot of people. Co-oping is easy if things don't work out, it's not permanent. I agree that many small schools would benefit from cooping, especially when they have less than 15 kids out for major sports. I totally agree that school cooperatives need to be discussed more often.
Another example of two programs that are getting ahead are Lyons-Decatur and Bancroft-Rosalie. They will start co-oping sports next fall and I'm excited for those kids. Hopefully they will be more competitive and the kids will enjoy games and practices more.
It's going to happen anyways, might as well get a head of it if your school is struggling.[/QUOTE]
LDNE and BR are co-oping not merging. My initial argument was not against cooping, it was against merging when that is not needed. Merging is permanent, and can not be undone in most cases. It It requires a lot of commitment from a lot of people. Co-oping is easy if things don't work out, it's not permanent. I agree that many small schools would benefit from cooping, especially when they have less than 15 kids out for major sports. I totally agree that school cooperatives need to be discussed more often.
Some instances I feel like co-oping is just a band aid on a broken arm. Sure in some ways it works fine. Schools like Clarkson and Leigh make it work, but I won't be shocked if they are one school in 5-10 years because they can see the writing on the wall.
But a school like Tilden (Elkhorn Valley) staying open/not co-oping to me is kind of crazy. The kids have a great chance play in good teams at Neligh-Oakdale or Battle Creek. Their numbers have decreased dramatically over the last 10 years. Neligh and Battle Creek are close as well.
But a school like Tilden (Elkhorn Valley) staying open/not co-oping to me is kind of crazy. The kids have a great chance play in good teams at Neligh-Oakdale or Battle Creek. Their numbers have decreased dramatically over the last 10 years. Neligh and Battle Creek are close as well.
Last edited:
You also have to consider the teachers being put out of a job when you consolidate. In many if not all of these small towns the school is one of the biggest employers in the town. This then leads to the teachers leaving the community and further hurting the enrollment. And often times the bigger school will allow a middle school or elementary school to function in the smaller community until they find reasons to get those moved as well. Since I don't know the situations of these schools I won't comment on what they should do but I have experienced the co-op situation and it has been a very positive experience. It's interesting to note that many of the people who were against just a co-op have also changed their tune. Some have even mentioned that the school board should've went into a co-op sooner.
I totally agree. Two towns that have pretty much stayed the same since losing their schools were Snyder and Beemer. Both towns are near each other and they are still fine.
Sure out west of Lexington it may be different but on the east side, they don't just fade away.
Those kids from the smaller schools may be on a better team (if merged) but many may now not have the opportunity to play.
They're good enough to play for their small town against other small town competition, but if they merge to a larger school to become a larger school now it's possible they won't see the field.
I'm not against mergers if it is necessary but if it's not, then I say let the small towns keep their schools.
Elkhorn Valley has some very large classes coming up in their elementary school. I believe 30-40 kids per class. They felt like they would just ride out the low numbers for a few years and stay on their own.
I think that they have had a lot of the kids that were good athletes back in the 90's and early 2000's move back and start families. I think you will see some familiar names in the future!
Neither Snyder nor Beemer are exactly booming. Snyder has manufacturing companies to create jobs, Beemer, like Hooper, has a nice golf course to keep them going. Also Beemer only lost their school about 10 years ago. Towns like Uehling, Craig, Herman, Decatur would argue losing their school hurt the town. All the towns mentioned also had elementary/JH attendance centers recently How many still have them? Maybe Herman.
If I remember correctly, Loup City RIFed a number of teachers a few years back and the next thing g you know they are a D2 school because the teachers they got rid of took twenty some kids with them!