I think what a lot of people also don't realize is that schools know they need to be looking at doing a co-op, but often times their are not any schools around them that want to/need to co-op also.
Agreed that is sometimes the case. Unfortunately too often though the struggling schools wait way to long and put themselves in such a position that they lose all bargaining power.
For example, Pender and Emerson Hubbard have been cooping track and Jhigh sports for a number of years. Pender approaches EH about cooping for football in 18 and 19. EH drags the decision out till the deadline and declines putting Pender in a tough spot the next two years. Then two weeks later someone at EH finally realizes that "oh shoot, we wont be able to field a volleyball or girls basketball team next year and the following years look bleak as well. Let's contact our good friends south of us at Pender and see if they will coop. Hopefully they forget about that whole football thing". Really? What a disaster. Talk about having egg on your face. From there EH has talks with Homer, Pender, Wakefield, and Allen, another school with major issues going on. Homer and Wakefield are ruled out pretty quickly. Allen, desperate for help as well looks like a possibility. At this point EH is still embarrassed about the Pender ordeal. The EH school board votes a day before Allen's school board does. EH's school board says yes to Allen. The next day Allen, who also talked with Wakefield and Ponca, votes for EH as their first choice as well but just for girls sports only not boys. The EH community, not impressed with the board's decision to go with Allen and coupled with Allen's decision to do girls only, creates a stir and the board backtracks. They end up approaching Pender more seriously again, this point basically out of options almost begging them to coop. Now Pender is in a position where if they don't they know that there will be no EH girl's athletics next year. This puts Pender in a really tough spot as well. If Pender says no, which I dont think they will, would the relationship between Pender and EH be beyond repair for good? EH has lost all bargaining power. If they would have worked with Pender back in November, or better yet during the past few years, they would have been able to negotiate coop name, nickname, colors, where practices will be and how often, where games will be played and how often, who the coaches will be, and maybe most importantly what confernece they would compete in. EH is in the Lewis and Clark and Pender in the East Husker. Both are on the outskirts of the conferences, thus someone potentially would be traveling a lot further in the opposite directiom for games than what their used to.
As previously mentioned Allen had talks with Ponca, Wakefield, and EH. At the meeting night where the board was to decide a number of parents show up and raise a fuss about the boys cooping as the boys enrollment and particpation is fine to a degree. This year their boys basketball team only had 11 players but all were underclassman. They managed to go 7-12 with the teams they beat having a combined record of 25-122 with two of the seven wins against 7-15 Santee. But the parents of these boys are convinced that their sons will lead them to the promise land that is the state tournament and they should do so in an Allen uniform. Side note-with the newly passed girls/boys only enrollments being used it appears the Allen boys will jump up to D1 the next two years. Wonder if the parents still feel as strong? The bottom 2/3 of D2 is so poor because so mamy schools struggle with just fielding teams, D1 while still having small schools is much more competitive top to bottom. The board ends up voting to go with EH but for girls only. They concede that all practice and games would be at EH. From my view point your creating division in your school by doing this. How much support from the community would the girls from Allen get for a Friday night basketball game in EH when the boys are playing at home in Allen? What the school and town needs is pride and a sense of community and all they would be doing is creating less of it. So EH backs out, partly cause of Allen's decision to do girls only. Allen is also back at the drawing board and now has to go back to Wakefield and Ponca. Now it appears that Allen and Wakefield will coop, girls only. In talking to someone close to the situation this winter they made the comment that Allen has a lot to offer. No, you really dont because your at a complete disadvantage but if you would have started the process 3-4 years ago then yes you would have had more to offer.
In the flipside I agree with finch63 that the neighboring schools often arent fond of cooping. From my perspective if your C2 or smaller your foolish for not seriously considering. How long will it be till your school is in the same position and need to coop? Will there be any cooping partners left? For example Ponca is landlocked by the Missouri River. Newcastle to the west went with Hartington, South Sioux City is to the east, and Allen to the south. Sure Ponca is fine now but things can change quickly and Allen is their last chance for a partner. Probably most importantly outside of enrollment is that cooping often leads to consolidation. Consolidation is where you have a chance to increase your taxbase
There are two silly issues I see over and over in coop discussions. First off is the thought that little Johnny or Susie might not play if two schools coop. Instead parents want little Johnny to be guarenteed his starting spot on varsity as an undersized sophomore on a sub .500 team. This isnt always just the case for the struggling school though. The larger better off school also has parents with the mindset that a kid from another school may take little Susie's spot on the team. Secondly, schools are so dang worried about jumping up a classification. Sorry but nutt up and play! I think one of the biggest benefits we would see if C1-D2 became two or three classes would be some of these struggling schools that barely fill out a roster and even forefeiting games at times cooping sooner. A lot of potential coops are between a class D2 and D1 or C2 school which often puts them at the very bottom of C1. Mentally thats just too much for many to handle, from both schools, and talks stop.
Lastly because of the uncertainty created by the botched process this winter option enrollments out of the districts start to increase. In the past few months EH has seen it to Homer, Pender, and Wakefield and Allen to Ponca.
