Henning Happenings

Chad Koenen

In over 20 years in the newspaper industry, I don’t think I have ever felt so heartbroken and exhausted as I did after last week’s school board work session in Henning. We once again found ourselves talking about the future of Henning Hornet, Battle Lake Battler and Otter Tail Central Bulldog athletics. 

I think most people in this community are also tired of talking about the subject matter. 

Last Monday was at least the third time in the past several years that a group of people tried to get Battle Lake and Henning to join in girls and boys basketball, as well as volleyball. Just like the prior discussions, it seems the two schools will once again continue to field their own basketball and volleyball teams. 

We have to ask why are we here in the first place? Why are there a group of people who continue to push for a full co-op for athletics year after year? What kind of long-term damage is being done to these kids and families who are told you aren’t good enough?

Last week we heard from a school board member who stated Battle Lake wants to find a partner for basketball and volleyball. He said the school district wants to pair and is looking at Henning first, but questioned if they may turn their attention to other school districts if Henning opts to stay on its own for these three core sports. 

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.

Given the concerns we have heard from both communities as a whole, we have to ask, who was pushing this narrative that both schools need to co-op for all sports and for what reason?

We also heard from a business owner during the public comment period that Henning is in the power position and Battle Lake is not, which in his experience in business and in life, is the time that people with the upper hand will get the best deal possible.

I couldn’t disagree more with the one school board member and business owner who said now is the time that Henning should seriously consider co-oping with Battle Lake because we have the upper hand. This isn’t business; these are people’s lives we are talking about. 

What makes them think Henning has the upper hand in the first place? Our participation numbers are quite similar to Battle Lakes. Our neighbor to the west just passed an expansive school building levy that failed twice in Henning to upgrade facilities. I guess the only thing would be recent success on the court.

Rather than eye the situation through the lens of a business transaction, we should see the situation through the eyes of teenagers who have feelings and are the very kids we see in our own backyards every day. These are families who made the decision to come to Henning School to be a part of a small community, whether we are great at sports or not. 

If we truly care about our community and school district we wouldn’t push to co-op with another school district for sports; we would take a long hard look at ourselves and try to figure out why our participation numbers are down from years past.

From that feedback, we will know if something can be done internally to correct the problem, not just blow up our history. Every school goes through fluctuations of participation numbers. The occasional dip in one sport or another is not a reason to take away opportunities from future Henning and Battle Lake students. 

Several comments were made by a few supporters of co-oping with Battle Lake that losing games is not the way to grow a program and that could lead to less kids participating in sports in the future. 

Perhaps this was the most heartbreaking part of the entire process, hearing about how these teenagers who are trying their best on the court this winter, are in the eyes of some people in this community, no longer good enough to play on their own. Basically, even though they want to have their own team we should not give them the chance to improve in future years (reportedly a poll of the girls basketball coaches and players showed near unanimous support to remain on our own for girls basketball moving forward). 

What is being overshadowed is that all three of our core Henning programs have enjoyed immense success in recent years with this year being the lone outlier for volleyball and girls basketball.

The youth programs for the girls basketball team remain strong in terms of numbers and talent, while the volleyball team in Henning has record participation numbers and we all know of the recent success of the boys basketball team. 

What kind of a message does that send to these teenagers, and their families? We hear frequently that we need to focus on the mental health of our youth, yet for at least the third time in the past few years we find ourselves talking about taking opportunities away from our youth in Henning and Battle Lake that could teach them lessons far beyond wins and losses on the court, in favor of creating some kind of super power program for a few years.

Recently I visited with a coach within the girls basketball program who shared that the lack of senior level students on the basketball team was not unexpected. In fact, these few grades in the upper levels at Henning haven’t had a large participation in basketball for a number of years.

Instead, he said the younger athletes, especially at the freshman level, have been playing with the older kids for a number of years now. Yes, this season was rough, but the team has shown incredible improvement over the season and leading into next year. 

Wins and losses are important, but providing an opportunity for a student to be a part of a team can provide far more valuable experiences that will shape them for the rest of their life. The top tier of athletes will play no matter what team we have to offer, but the students that would suffer by a co-op for basketball and volleyball are the ones who are not in the upper tier athletically and would be the youth that could benefit the most from being part of a team. 

Fortunately, four school board members shared their opposition to further co-ops with Battle Lake at this time. Each said nearly all of the people who reached out to them prior to the meeting had expressed concern over further co-ops with our neighbors to the west. Not necessarily about anything to do with Battle Lake, but an overwhelming desire to keep what we have in Henning and not risk losing more students who may not want to drive to the neighboring community for practice and games, while also keeping our strong community identity.

Bringing up the topic year after year is creating a divide in our community and between Battle Lake and Henning as well. What kind of a message does this send to parents who may want to open enroll their students to either school district? Does the uncertainty created by this small group of people make prospective families look elsewhere, especially on the edge of school districts, for education? 

All of us should take time and learn from this year. We need to look within ourselves and our own programs to grow our participation numbers if people in the community are going to watch those moving forward. We are a small school and there will be times when small classes will go through our programs and school district. Yes we can do more to promote each program to get more participants, but as we have seen with volleyball you don’t need large classes to see record levels of participation. Low participation numbers seems to be a temporary problem in this community and co-oping is a permanent and unwanted solution. 

Both Henning and Battle Lake School Districts and communities have spoken out—leave our extracurricular arrangements where they currently are.