Prescott Votes to Keep Combine

PRESCOTT - In a swift six minutes, Prescott's School Board discussed and passed a motion to continue, status quo, in the WP Ath­letic Combine agreement through the 2014-15 school year. The vote took place during a March 19 Special Meeting. During the meet­ing, members expressed a desire to communicate and work cooperatively with Waitsburg, using the coming year to address issues that have been raised before reas­sessing the combine.

Earlier this month, Prescott had presented Waitsburg's School Board with a proposal make chang­es to the current Combine agreement. Proposed chang­es included separating junior high sports from the Com­bine, separating high school basketball and volleyball when Prescott had enough athletes and moving to a pay-per-player fiscal struc­ture. Waitsburg responded to the proposal by requesting that Prescott remain in the Combine, under the stand­ing agreement, until the next certification period.

Board Chairman Karen Tonne opened last week's meeting by going around the table, asking members to of­fer input regarding Combine participation. Erik Young led off by stating that the dead­line for this year was running out and he would like to get together with Waitsburg and work together as a team to see if they can solve issues of participation and cost structure.

"We worked together to get the Combine started," Young said. "Now that we see some problems and want to make some changes, in retrospect, we should work together to try and achieve those changes and fix the problems that we have."

Young commented that maintaining the 50/50 cost structure didn't seem fiscally responsible for either side unless they could guarantee an even number of kids in each sport.

"I don't know what the answer is to get more kids involved," said Young. "But if we don't do something dif­ferent than what we're doing, we won't get anything differ­ent than what we're getting."

Board members Sara Fletcher and Eva Madrigal expressed that their main concern was the lack of par­ticipation and that they want­ed to do whatever possible to increase that. Board member Mark Hauck agreed to work on problems cooperatively with Waitsburg as well.

"We're having issues fi­nancially with our kids and I don't know -- if we work to­gether -- how they could not see our issues with paying and not having half the play­ers," Hauck said. "I think if both sides work together, there's an answer."

A motion to remain in the Combine for the 2014- 15 school year was made and passed unanimously by poll. "We just need to get together and sit down and talk. During this next year we're going to need to make arrangements to do that," said Tonne.

Following the vote, com­munity members and coach­es spoke up. When asked what the main problem was, Young mentioned the cost structure and Fletcher re­sponded that the big issue was determining why junior high students aren't turning out for sports and how to get them involved. "I think maybe there's been a lack of motivation in how to get the kids to play. We need to motivate them. That's our job," she said.

"I don't think any of us had a future in mind where we weren't still partners," said Young. "But instead of a Combine, it would be a co-op, where you're pay-per- player."

Young also explained the thought behind separat­ing the junior high from the Combine. "One of the things we thought about was that if we got interest at the junior high level, and got them involved, and made it easier for them to play when they're not as invested in the sport -- they don't have as much travel time and it isn't as difficult for them -- when they progress to a high school level they get combined and are already excited about the sport and enthusiastic. It's just an idea. We don't know that it's the answer."

Longtime resident Mike Erwin asked what would be done with the money saved by separating from the Com­bine, recognizing that it "has to stay in a certain pool." After clarifying the question, Superintendent Brett Cox said, "We wouldn't realize any savings if we went on our own. It would cost us a little bit more, actually. It's all funded with levy dollars that are spent on athletics and can only be spent on certain things."

WP Coaches Tavis Crit­tenden, Angie Potts and Dustin Snedigar all offered from-the-trenches input. Snedigar took the position that a 50/50 cost structure was fair, as opposed to bur­dening one school with the cost of "providing the op­portunity to play" while the other school paid only per player.

Crittenden recalled grow­ing up playing in a co-op set­ting and how difficult it was for players from a school without a middle school program to join an already experienced team in high school. He also commented on the lack of unity in the team when they first came together at a high school level. Potts noted that cul­tural issues play a big role in Prescott's lack of participa­tion, especially among the female players.

"These are things we need to talk about," said Tonne. "We have a whole year to talk about it now."

"It does help knowing what the opinion of the people is," said Young. "It is your tax money and it's good to know what you want to spend it on. If we know what the general opinion of the public is that helps us a lot. That's who we're here to serve."