Sprague, Lamont join Bronco sports

Sprague and Lamont athletics will be combined with Lind/Ritzville starting next year. The new alignment follows an end this year to the Sprague/Harrington sports combination which also included middle school students at Lamont.

The merger ended when Harrington School directors earlier this year opted to merge with Odessa for the next sports year. That left the Sprague/Lamont program in limbo, according to Doug Shields, chairman of the Sprague Board.

He noted the Harrington board made its change without responding to requests from Sprague and Lamont to discuss the proposal. Sprague and Lamont were officially notified only after Harrington opted to link with Odessa.

The Lind/Ritzville merger will add approximately 28 students to the WIAA count for the Lind/Ritzville Broncos. The new combo will have about 171 students enrolled in the top three grades, the tally used to assign schools to WIAA sports classifications. At 171, the Broncos are still well under the maximum for 2B schools.

The Broncos compete in the Bi-County League for 2B schools in district seven.

Shields said sports schedules already worked out by Lind/Ritzville will not be changed as a result of the addition of students from Sprague and Lamont.

The new Bronco merger will mean more sports opportunities for Sprague High students. Bronco wrestling and the spring teams sports, baseball and softball, will now be available.

Since 1996, Sprague/Harrington has not offered true spring team sports. Athletes who wanted to play those sports had to join a team from a neighboring district which offered those sports. In those cases, the athletes had to pay their own travel expenses.

One change, at least for the first year, will be a daily commute by Sprague and Lamont students to Ritzville and Lind for practices and competition. Under the prior merger, practices alternated each week between Sprague and Lamont and Harrington.

Lamont Principal Joe Whipple said another change will limit junior high sports to seventh and eighth graders because of enrollment restrictions. Under the Harrington merger, the districts’ overall enrollment was low enough to allow sixth graders to participate, but that won’t be the case under the merger with Lind/Ritzville.

Students from Sprague High will commute approximately 25 miles to Ritzville, but the travel time will be less than the trip to Harrington because the trip will be made on I-90. Middle school students will travel from Lamont to Sprague, then to Ritzville and then, on most days, to Lind.

Whipple said Sprague and Lamont also considered a merger with other districts, including St. John/Endicott, but a survey indicated most residents of the districts favored pursuing a merger with Lind/Ritzville. Final approval of the merger was approved by the Lind and Ritzville boards at their May meetings. The plan had already been approved by Sprague and Lamont boards.