Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Rosalia and Tekoa schools will form a new cooperative for sports beginning next year. A vote by the Tekoa school board Oct. 25 culminated talks. Discussions through the fall led to a proposal first approved by the Rosalia school board Oct. 23.
The agreement will encompass all sports in grades 7-12, beginning in the 2014-15 school year.
“Our board was consistent in that we want to continue to provide the most programs for the kids,” said Tekoa Superintendent Connie Kliewer.
The deal will re-start, in part, an arrangement which ran for 10 years as Tekoa-Oakesdale-Rosalia (T.O.R.) until last spring.
Last April when a proposal to combine all sports as T.O.R. for grades 7-12 was rescinded, the schools scrambled for what the three schools would do for sports this year.
As a result, Rosalia went independent for an eight-man football team while Tekoa-Oakesdale’s small, young team completed an eight-man J.V. schedule.
Basketball has traditionally been Rosalia on its own while Tekoa-Oakesdale played together. That will be the same this year.
This spring, Tekoa-Oakesdale, under terms of an agreement, will join Garfield-Palouse for spring sports. That arrangement will be one year.
A future course for Oakesdale sports has not been determined beyond that point.
“All I can tell you is T and R have decided to go together, Oakesdale does not know what it will do next,” said Ken Lindgren, Oakesdale High School Athletic Director. “We’ve got to do some discussing now, see what our options are.”
Rosalia Superintendent Larry Keller, who succeeded Bill Thurston last July, said the new Tekoa-Rosalia combo teams may have to play at the 2B level.
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) line is 93 full-time equivalent students for grades 10, 11, 12, but they will do calculations and decide on division splits next January.
Keller indicated that a steering group will be set up with Rosalia and Tekoa representatives to begin work on the new partnership, deciding matters such as team name, colors, which fields to play on and when, and more.
“There’s a whole raft of stuff we’ll have to talk about,” Keller said.
The steering group will ultimately make recommendations which will need to be approved by both school boards.
Overall, Keller said the Rosalia-Tekoa arrangement should be fruitful.
“I think we have mutual interests,” he said. “We both realize we’re getting small and can’t stand alone.”
The deal appears to end the run of Tekoa-Oakesdale-Rosalia teams in Whitman County sports.
Because of lower numbers in grade school classes, the Rosalia board put forth the idea in January which culminated in community meetings in Rosalia, Tekoa and Oakesdale.
The proposal would have expanded the existing T.O.R. arrangement for football, baseball, softball, track, cross country and golf to include basketball and volleyball.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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