SJE, LaCrosse discussing sports merger

St. John/Endicott Cooperative Schools have been meeting with the LaCrosse School District for the last several months to discuss a potential sports cooperative between the districts, and public meetings are scheduled in St. John and Endicott next week to discuss the SJE Cooperative boards’ proposal.

LaCrosse district has cited declining participation numbers in its partnership with Washtucna and Kahlotus, as well as the potential of Washtucna and Kahlotus moving their sports programs to a cooperative with Ritzville.

“It’s a project that the school board is working on, but the patrons need to have their input, too,” said SJE Superintendent Suzanne Schmick.

Schmick said the two meetings next week will be used to gather input from the community on the proposal.

“We’re looking forward to getting good information from our patrons,” she said. “We want to gather ideas and check with our patrons. We’ll see what comes.”

Some LaCrosse students have already been participating on St. John/Endicott teams, with LaCrosse students being bussed there for football and basketball in this school year after the school was unable to field its own team. LaCrosse has also partnered with SJE for baseball in the past

In the current winter sports, five LaCrosse students were listed on the high school boys basketball team (plus 16 SJE students), one LaCrosse student was on the high school girls basketball team (plus 11 SJE students, including one eighth grader), one LaCrosse student on the high school cheerleading team (plus five SJE students) and three LaCrosse students on the middle school boys basketball team (plus 21 ESJ students).

The cooperative would mean LaCrosse students would be officially involved in all SJE sports.

“We’d be formalizing it,” said LaCrosse Principal Jeff Pietila. “Right now, they’re just accepting our kids.”

In meeting minutes from a Dec. 19 cooperative school boards work session, the pros and cons of the potential cooperative with LaCrosse were listed. Pros including remaining in the 1B division, being more competitive, practices remaining in St. John and Endicott, financial support from LaCrosse and the potential of full junior varsity games. A con was listed as the loss of one home game per sport each season – plus the gate, dinner and concessions revenues with that game – as the proposal lists one game per sport for both middle and high school to be in LaCrosse.

Pros and cons were also listed for keeping things as is, with LaCrosse students just continuing to join SJE students in the event the school cannot field a team. The pro was keeping all home games, and there were no cons listed.

The proposal has six conditions. The first condition is that all LaCrosse sports teams will combine with the SJE High School and ESJ Middle School, and the second condition is that all practices for high school teams remain in St. John with the exception of baseball, which will continue in Endicott. All middle school practices will be in Endicott.

The third condition is that the colors for SJEL and ESJL stay the same as currently used, and the fourth condition stipulates that LaCrosse will transport its athletes to practices and to ride the SJE and ESJ busses to competitions. The fifth condition has the LaCrosse district’s financial contributions capping out at 35 percent, depending on how many LaCrosse students are participating in each sport, and the final condition is the one home game per sport and season in LaCrosse.

The public sessions next week are being held to gather community input and as a way for the public to view the proposal.

The meeting in St. John is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 21, from 7-8:30 p.m. in the SJE High School gym, and the meeting in Endicott is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 23, from 7-8:30 p.m. in the ESJ Middle School gym. Schmick said patrons are welcome to attend either forum.

“It is an open, public forum,” she commented.

Pietila said he is looking forward to hearing what the St. John and Endicott communities feel about the proposal. He added that he has appreciated the support of the communities in welcoming the LaCrosse students on teams already.

“We’re not looking to change colors or teams or anything like that,” said Pietila. “We’re just looking for opportunities for our kids.”