Paton-Churdan high school athletes competing in track and field this spring will do it wearing Rockets’ orange and black, not Greene County Rams’ red and black. The subject of where those students will compete was a topic of discussion at both boards’ regular February meetings.
The P-C board has discussed high school track in previous months, trying to determine whether there would be enough athletes to field a boys and a girls team. At the board’s Feb. 11 meeting, principal Annie Smith reported that seven boys and no girls had signed up for track. In the 2014 season, P-C had nine boys and six girls out for track. Board member Troy Paup was in an awkward position as the father of a talented female athlete, junior Carleigh Paup. She wants to participate but wants to have enough for a relay, he said.
After a lengthy discussion that included speculation about whether there would be more or fewer participants if the students competed with the Greene County team, and speculation about participation in the coming years, the board reluctantly decided to ask the Greene County board to accept girls on the Ram team but to field a P-C boys team. Board member Libby Towers voted against the motion. “Once we send something away, we don’t get it back, and I hate to see P-C lose any more,” Towers said.
There was also speculation about whether Greene County would accept only the girls or insist that it be both boys and girls or neither. The P-C board did not have a plan for that outcome.
At the Greene County board meeting the next week, Feb. 18, that’s exactly what happened. Discussion was long and frank, and in the end, Greene County agreed to accept P-C girls only if P-C boys also came.
Board member Sam Harding was very vocally against allowing P-C to participate, based on the timeliness of the request and a history of P-C participating one year and not the next.
The sports sharing agreement between the two schools states that Greene County will accept athletes at no extra cost for some sports, including track, but the request must be made by Feb. 1 for the following school year. Paton-Churdan was more than a year late in making the request to share girls track.
“They didn’t ask during the agreement and I don’t want to do it. It’s time to stick to our agreement. We take the time to write the agreement and they should have notified us a year ago, and that’s it. I don’t want to do it,” Harding said.
Board member Mark Peters was more agreeable, saying he was okay with it if the girls were at Greene County to stay. Board member Susan Burkett was also agreeable, saying she’d hate to deny a student an opportunity to compete.
Harding continued,“We’re not denying opportunity. They had the opportunity to do it at Churdan and they chose not to…. P-C had the option a year ago to share track with us and they chose not to. They’ve made the decision for the students and it’s time they learn. They just can’t keep thinking we’ll do anything they want. I’m tired of it.”
Greene County activities director Dean Lansman said adding athletes would not change the size classification in track. Lansman teaches high school science and has P-C students in his classes. He said some P-C boys had told him they’d rather compete on the larger Greene County team. Lansman suggested the board “make it all or nothing, and then they can decide what they want.”
Harding made a motion that the request be denied based on timeliness. The motion failed, with Harding, Teresa Hagen and Peters voting in favor and Burkett, Jeff Lamoureux, David Ohrt and Ashley Johnston voting against.
As discussion continued, Lansman said, “We have to look at what’s best for all kids. I think we have more opportunities we could offer them. On the male side, I think they have athletes that could truly help us on our relays. My biggest thing with adding girls is that right now they don’t have a girl that’s signed up… I’ve heard our kids say it would be nice to run with those kids.”
Longtime track coach Kelly Simpson said this is the third or fourth time P-C has made a late request to share track. “P-C has struggled to have a track team for boys and girls for a long, long time…. I don’t see why they’d be against their kids coming here. It gives their kids an opportunity to be on a real track team that has relays that have success. Maybe that’s why their numbers are low, is because they don’t have that opportunity,” Simpson said. “If they came here and had some success maybe that would bolster their numbers.”
Peters made a motion to approve sharing boys and girls track with P-C and to modify the agreement with the intention that track be shared on a continuing basis, not year by year. That motion passed, with only Harding voting against it.
The Greene County board’s decision put the matter back in the P-C board’s court. According to P-C superintendent Rob Olsen, P-C will field their own teams.
The first date allowed by the Iowa High School Athletic Association for track and field practices was Feb. 16. Lansman said the Greene County coaches put a break between basketball and track and they plan to start practices March 2. Meanwhile, the Paton-Churdan boys are still playing post season basketball.
