Luverne School Board declines H-BC request for sports pairing decision

Luverne School Board members agreed on a split vote Monday night to deny a sports pairing request from the Hills-Beaver Creek School District.
H-BC had sent a letter to Luverne School District requesting to discuss pairing in seven activities.
“H-BC is interested in pairing in the following sports: wrestling, baseball, softball, gymnastics, cross country, tennis and hockey,” stated the Feb. 22 letter from H-BC Superintendent Todd Holthaus to Luverne Superintendent Craig Oftedahl.
Luverne School Board members denied the request at their Monday night meeting, which was rescheduled from Feb. 23, due to the blizzard.
After discussing the matter for about 20 minutes, the Luverne board voted 4-3 to deny the sports pairing request.
Tim Jarchow, Eric Hartman, Dave Wrigg and Ryan DeBates voted against any sports pairing discussions with H-BC.
Jarchow said the two school boards had discussed possible pairing agreements in the past.
“We agreed at that time to set a precedence that open enrollment is allowed for anyone who wants to play sports with Luverne to also benefit from the education options that we have,” Jarchow said.
Zach Nolz, Randy Sasker and Mike DeBates voted in favor of at least discussing some pairing options with the H-BC athletic committee.
Sasker asked about Luverne’s team rosters, which are all full except for wrestling and junior varsity hockey programs.
“The view looks pretty good now,” he said. “But if enrollment numbers go down, that changes the number of participants in those activities, too.”
Luverne’s district enrollment is not projected to decline in the near future.
“We can always entertain it at another point in time,” Ryan DeBates said.
Currently the H-BC athletic program offers football, volleyball, girls’ and boys’ basketball, girls’ and boys’ track and girls’ and boys’ golf.
Luverne and H-BC have had individual sports pairing agreements in the past where H-BC was billed for the program costs.