Dayton, Waitsburg eye sports merger

Dayton and Waitsburg school districts are now considering a merger of their sports programs. According to the Dayton Chronicle, school boards in each district have hosted public discussions about making the merger.

Dayton and Waitsburg at one time were regular stops for Colfax teams when the Bulldogs played in the former SE-A conference.

Waitsburg and Dayton have been playing in the WIAA District 9 2B division with DeSales, Tri-Cities Prep and Walla Walla Valley Academy. The merger would continue to put the schools in the 2B division.

The combined Dayton-Waitsburg football team for two years has competed in the Eastern Washington Athletic Conference which also includes Liberty Christian, Kittitas, White Swan, Lyle-Wishram and Mabton in addition to the schools in District 5. The two schools also had a combined baseball team in the league last spring.

Dayton also plays in the EWAC 2B conference with its individual teams.

One of the central motivations for the merger is the low number of students who turn out for the sports teams.

Waitsburg is listed by the latest WIAA with 79 students and Dayton is listed with 107.

The current 2B division in the WIAA classification requires enrollment of between 83 to 214 in the three grades.

The merger topic has been scheduled to come up for a vote at the mid- February meeting of the Dayton board.

The two districts merged football as a pilot program in 2016. According to the Chronicle, hiring of coaches for the merged program would be open for all sports except football and baseball where the program has already been combined.

The proposal calls for the new merged teams to retain their respective mascots with the Bulldogs for Dayton and the Cardinals for Waitsburg.