EXPANDED TRAPPERS CO-OP GAINS SCOTLAND APPROVAL

An expanded Scotland/Menno Trappers athletic partnership appears to be back on the table.

That’s the word from Menno Superintendent Kory Foss, who told The Courier Tuesday night, Jan. 9 that the Scotland School Board had earlier in the evening voted 5-2 in favor of including boys and girls basketball, track and field and wrestling as part of the cooperative beginning with the 2024-25 school year. The motion that was approved was for a two-year agreement and includes junior high athletics in those sports.

Scotland and Menno are currently in an athletic cooperative in football, golf and softball — all sanctioned by the South Dakota High School Activities Association — and also have a partnership in youth and high school baseball.

The sports of cross-country and volleyball were not included as part of the motion approved by Scotland on Tuesday.

Foss said the Menno School Board has not officially taken up the topic yet, and won’t take action on the matter when it meets in regular session Wednesday night, Jan. 10. Rather, he said, a vote by the Menno board on co-op expansion would come at a special meeting to allow ample time for public feedback.

“Our board wasn’t going to take this on formally until there was passage of a plan on their end,” Foss told The Courier.

This latest development comes less than a year after a proposed expanded Trappers cooperative that would have included boys and girls basketball, track and field and wrestling starting in the fall of 2023, failed by a single vote.

Meeting Feb. 13 of last year, Menno approved the proposal 4-3 while Scotland failed to pass it 3-4.

The action by the Scotland board comes during a basketball season in which both the Highlanders and Wolves are struggling. Because of low numbers Scotland does not have a junior varsity team, and their varsity boys are 0-7 while the girls are 1-6 — their only win coming against Menno.

The Menno boys and girls, meanwhile, are both 0-7.

Foss said he believes that an expanded cooperative is worth considering, not only in the context of wins and losses, but because larger participation numbers between two schools would mean students would be able to compete at their appropriate age level.

Watch for more information as it become available.