By Chad Koenen

Publisher

For at least the third time in the past several years the Henning School Board found itself discussing the future of the Henning Hornet and Otter Tail Central partnership for extracurricular activities. And for at least the third time the Henning School Board seemed to favor remaining on its own for boys and girls basketball, as well as volleyball. 

During a special work session last Monday night, the school board heard that the Battle Lake School District recently approached the Henning School District about potentially expanding the Otter Tail Central co-op for boys and girls basketball, as well as volleyball. Since the meeting was a work session no formal vote or action on the matter was taken.

“We were approached by Battle Lake to consider this opportunity,” said Henning School Superintendent Melissa Sparks. 

When contacted by the Citizen’s Advocate on Monday morning, Battle Lake Superintendent Rob Nudell said the Battle Lake School Board expressed a desire to hold conversations about additional co-op opportunities, but the Henning School Board was not in favor of doing so. However, according to multiple reports from people who were aware of the discussion at Monday’s Battle Lake School Board meeting, the Battle Lake School Board also had some reservations about expanding its number of co-ops to include basketball and volleyball with the Henning School District. 

Sparks said the two school district’s activities directors and superintendents met twice and compared participation numbers in each of the three sports they are not already paired. 

In volleyball both school districts show strong participation numbers with over 20 participants in grades 9-12 for both school districts, and 23 students in grades 7-8 in volleyball in Henning and 17 in grades 7-8 in Battle Lake. 

Boys basketball shows similar strong numbers in regards to Henning, which has 21 students out for basketball in grades 9-12 and 12 in grades 7-8. Battle Lake has 17 students in basketball in grades 9-12 and another 10 in grades 7-8. Both programs have between 10-14 students in basketball at the fifth and sixth grade level.

The biggest concern for activities director Randy Misegades was girls basketball in which Henning and Battle Lake had just 10 girls each out for the sport in grades 9-12. The numbers improved for both schools at the junior high and elementary level as Henning has 12 girls in basketball in grades 7-8 and Battle Lake has 10. Henning has 16 girls out for basketball in grades 5-6, while Battle Lake has 13. 

“The biggest area of concern is girls basketball here and that obviously led to discussions for other sports,” he said. 

While lower participation numbers were reported of late in both school districts, Misegades said Henning and Battle Lake weren’t alone. He said Sauk Rapids Rice doesn’t have a full JV or C-team for girls basketball this season and they are a much larger school district than either Henning or Battle Lake.

Misegades said one of the issues is sports like club volleyball that has begun to creep into the winter sports season, while also just having less kids participating in three sports.

While girls basketball’s participation numbers were lower than normal this season, the volleyball program had the most participants in Henning’s history with 44 students in the program, according to numbers presented last week.

“In Henning I think boys basketball is the big draw, where we get the most kids and for girls it’s volleyball,” he said. “Our volleyball numbers are solid, they are really good, but that being said we didn’t have a lot of upperclassmen, so we were playing four to five freshmen on varsity.”

Misegades said Henning’s recent success has even led to a number of students transferring into the school district in recent years to play boys basketball and volleyball. He said seven of the 21 students in grades 9-12 in Henning School have transferred to Henning to participate in boys basketball 

“And the reality is and they will admit it, that is why they are here,” said Misegades. 

Misegades said he didn’t want to make a recommendation either way, but he guessed that volleyball coach Kristy Finck would be in favor of pairing with Battle Lake, while he said he could be swayed either way depending upon the day someone talked to him. By contrast, Misegades said girls basketball head coach Mike Hepola was against pairing and wanted to see Henning continue to field its own team moving forward. 

Several school board members said they heard from local residents who reached out to them to express their concern and ultimately asked the school board to keep Henning basketball and volleyball on their own.

“People who have talked to me and contacted me, they feel that sure there is more total numbers (by co-oping), but you are not going to have everybody participating, especially in our town,” said board chair Rod Thalmann. 

Sparks said she received a number of comments from people from across the school district leading up to the meeting, all of whom were against the possibility of additional pairings with Battle Lake.

“I haven’t received any feedback, from any people, in favor of this,” said Sparks of pairing for boys and girls basketball or volleyball. 

The Henning School superintendent said a number of the concerns expressed by community members revolved around transportation for practice, balancing school/home life, as well as the potential for a lack of playing time due to increased number of participants as being the leading cause to be against the additional co-op. 

“If you were to do something the travel is a big deal, and especially on the practice days. It’s frustrating. I’ve coached it,” said Misegades. “You would be splitting practice, splitting home games.”

Due to the expansive school building project, Henning basketball and volleyball teams had to travel to places like Perham, Bertha-Hewitt and even Battle Lake to hold summer and fall practices. School board member Matt Reinbold said a number of people expressed concern during that time for the additional time on the road for practices.

“On the travel thing, we had a building project and we heard how bad it was to travel to Bertha or Perham to practice. That is going to be everyday,” said Reinbold. 

Misegades said by co-oping there would be a larger pool of students to field a team from, which could lead to some kids not getting any playing time, but could also create more competition within the programs itself. At the same time he said some kids, especially those who may be the top tier of athletes in a specific sport, may not go out because the two schools would be co-opted. 

Henning volleyball coach Kristy Finck said she was a Cavalier with Henning and Deer Creek in high school and that arrangement worked out well for both sides. She said she would be in favor of pairing for all sports if that is the route the board opted to go. 

Reinbold also spoke against potentially co-oping in additional sports, especially after having a record number of kids out for volleyball this season. Even with a losing season featuring a number of underclassmen playing on the varsity level, Reinbold said all of the girls basketball coaches down to the junior high level were against pairing with Battle Lake for the sport. 

Sparks said one of the comments she heard from a number of people was that the Henning School District should try to find out why the students are not going out for extracurricular activities and what can be done differently to get interest back up at the high school level. 

“Number one suggestion that parents stated was to look inside ourselves and find out why the kids are not participating and how do you get those kids back,” she said. 

School board member Terry Oscarson said she remembered a number of years ago when Henning was looking for a school to co-op with and the school district lost a number of families, none of which ever came back to the school district, to Parkers Prairie as the families did not want to travel to Battle Lake. She said she heard a similar notion from a number of families about traveling to Battle Lake this time around. 

“If we lost that many kids going this way for sports, how many kids would we lose to the east? Is it really worth it financially,” she asked.

Reinbold and Sparks both said they also heard from parents who said they could explore other educational opportunities for their children if the co-op with Battle Lake were to expand. That could lead to a decrease in enrollment and less state funding down the road. 

Thalmann said Henning has a long and rich history of athletics and is known across the state for putting together solid athletic teams, despite its small size. He said at some point the school board needs to listen to the public’s wishes, which has been against further co-op pairings at this time. He said the community takes a lot of pride in its school district, and that includes its athletics.

“We are on the map for athletics and this community has taken a lot of pride in this school building from the first brick that has been laid and they still do and I still think they will for many years to come,” said Thalmann. “I just think at a certain point in time we probably should listen to the majority.”

Thalmann said the volleyball numbers are strong and the elementary and junior high levels for basketball are also strong to help with the varsity level in a few years.

School board member Kim Haugen also spoke in support of Henning remaining on its own for its remaining extracurricular activities last Monday night. She said students have open-enrolled into the school district for extracurricular activities, which has helped the district’s enrollment numbers. She also shared a story about one of her children who wrestled for OTC for one year, but would regularly not get home until after 6:30 p.m. each night from practice. That led to difficulties in balancing a school/home life. 

Haugen said she had not found one person who was in favor of co-oping with Battle Lake for additional sports, but did have a few people ask what happened if Battle Lake found another school to partner with and Henning had to pair in a few years. 

“My inners are saying we leave it as it is and see what happens,” said Haugen. “See if we can figure out why there are not more girls out and actually listen to people about why they are not doing it.”

Despite a majority of the school board members speaking in favor of staying independent for basketball and volleyball, school board member Andy Eckhoff said he wanted to speak to the Battle Lake School District to see what a co-op could look like for both school districts. Eckhoff contended that Battle Lake wanted to co-op with another school district for basketball and volleyball, whether that be Henning or another school district. 

“I don’t want to speak for Battle Lake, but I feel like I am not stepping out on a limb. I do think they are really wanting to co-op. We are their first choice. We are the most obvious, of course it would make the most sense,” said Eckhoff. “If they pursue other co-op options I don’t know if they are going to reach out to Ashby or Underwood. Maybe that is a stretch, maybe it is not.”

A local business owner also spoke out in favor of merging with Battle Lake as he said Henning would be negotiating from a position of strength over Battle Lake and could therefore gain more from a potential merger. 

Casey Johnson, who was elected to the school board in November, said most of the people he talked to are for potentially merging all sports with Battle Lake. He also said the Battle Lake School District had its referendum pass recently and will be making major upgrades to their facilities in the near future for things like their weight room. Those upgrades could hurt Henning in the future should it need to co-op with Battle Lake. 

Since last Monday’s meeting was just a work session no formal vote was taken, however, four school board members said their feeling was to leave the co-op where it stood with basketball and volleyball being on their own in Henning.