Colby school board reverts to xc co-op approval

The Colby school board decided to undo their decision to not renew the boys cross country co-op with Abbotsford during a special board meeting held last Wednesday. After initially voting 4-3 to end the joint venture in their regular monthly meeting, the board unanimously voted to continue the team for another two years, through the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.

The earlier decision to split ways with Abbotsford was not made without some reluctance. Similar reasons to both renew or not renew the team were mentioned on Wednesday.

The primary motivation for ending the co-op seemed to lie in the fact that by splitting the team, both the Abbotsford and Colby teams would be pushed down to Division 3 for the WIAA postseason, rather than having to compete in a more difficult Division 2 field as a combined team.

The co-op’s cross country coach, Bryon Graun, spoke again at Wednesday’s meeting.

“If we were to end the co-op, my opinion is that we aren’t hurting Abby kids,” he said. “Four years ago when I first came to the board, if we would have ended the co-op, we would have hurt an Abby kid, and I understand that. But I don’t see that happening now because I think [Abbotsford’s girls cross country coach] Dillon Novak, can do a great job with them.”

However, concern over whether or not Abbotsford could field its own team and sustain a program and what ending the co-op now could mean for other co-op teams in the future caused the Colby board to hesitate in the first meeting and similar issues were voiced again.

“There’s already enough divide between [Colby and Abbotsford],” said board member Lony Oestreich. “In my opinion, we need to spend more time working together and putting the kids first, versus changing it and then coming back to it every year or two and changing it again. I personally think that a mistake was made last week and we have a way to right that wrong tonight.”

“I was kind of torn over what was right or wrong and I’m willing to go back on what I had originally said simply because I think it’s in our best interest to work cohesively with Abbotsford,” board member Cody Gumz said.

The Abbotsford school board had voted unanimously to keep the co-op intact during their regular September meeting, though with the boards’ meetings overlapping, neither knew the others’ decision until after it had been made. Eric Reis, the president of Abbotsford’s school board, spoke as a member of the public during Wednesday’s special meeting.

“It is my opinion that the co-ops we have should not only be mutually agreed to get into, but also mutually agreed to non-renew them,” Reis said. “The bigger picture for me is providing opportunities for both schools’ kids. When we voted last week as a board, we did not feel that we had a sustainable program. We have five boys on the team now, with one graduating and just one middle school student in the pipeline. If there is other information that suggests that we have a sustainable program, that information has not been brought to us.”

“I voted the way I did because I was under the impression that Abbotsford had enough boys for their own team,” Colby board member Cheryl Ploeckelman said later. “I really don’t want there to be repercussions of ‘oh, we cut you off so in baseball you cut us off.’ We don’t want that.”

Reis also noted during his time that his kids, who attend Abbotsford school district, had made many friends from Colby through the co-op teams and that he sees these teams as an opportunity for the students to form those friendships with each other.

“I am leaning towards changing my vote just because I think it is better to keep those kids together,” Colby board member Teri Hanson said. “If you are going to be an elite runner in any division, that’s the work that you need to do yourself. The decision to split boils down to Division 2 or Division 3 and it’s not about anything else. The co-ops should really be about opportunity, and it does give you a larger pool of athletes. Just shifting so that we can have more state opportunities is maybe missing the point. Maybe its more about keeping people together.”

Continued cooperation with Abbotsford and a want to maintain a sense of stability in the team appeared to be the primary reasons behind the board’s decision to instead renew the joint boys team with Abbotsford for the next two years.