Deadline For Three-School Football Cooperative Agreement Is Needed By November 1, Other Sport Opportunities Discussed

 

WAKEFIELD – Several questions came about from Wakefield community members on the possibility of a cooperative agreement among Allen and Emerson-Hubbard.

From the main gymnasium, the Wakefield Community School Board of Education opened their first agenda item being a sports coop meeting Tuesday evening.

For the next hour and a half superintendent of Wakefield, Mark Bejot; head football coach, Mike Hassler and several board members would answer questions from a notecard and address questions from the crowd.

Mr. Bejot said the coop board will have to meet and put together their agreement between the schools with a deadline approaching within a couple of months for football.

“Then once we put the agreement together then it’s going to need to come to the boards for approval,” said Bejot. “Then it has to be submitted to the NSAA by November 1; so we’ve got some work to do.”

The main focus of the coop would be for the fall football season next season (2020) and in two years (2021) as Wakefield is currently on the second year of a two-year cycle. After next season, the team will see a sharp decline in football players to around 16 and would need the assistance from other schools. Discussion began in late May, early June with a three-team football program then proposed.

With football numbers in the upper 40s, the three-school team would compete in 11-man football at the Class C1 level. A coop can be created from up to four schools as football is the only Nebraska sport with a two-year cycle.

The possibility of adding other sports was also mentioned. Currently, Wakefield and Allen coop for high school volleyball, girls basketball, wrestling and boys golf as well as junior high sports. The possibility of adding Allen and Emerson-Hubbard to the occasion would bring forth new sports such as softball, cross country and girls golf along with cheerleading and dance. The three schools would coop in all sports except boys basketball. Many of the community members voiced their opinion of starting with football and then going from there.

“We continue to work on coop components,” Bejot added. “Looking at where are we’re going to go down the road with the other sports and the other parts of the programs. And we’ll those discussions.”

More items that still need to be discussed will be the possibility of a name, mascot and color change. Three board members from each school (Wakefield, Allen and Emerson-Hubbard) along with each school’s superintendent have attended their coop meetings and will next come together in Allen on Wednesday, August 28.

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