Sports coop with L-DNE off to a good start
This year, the Bancroft-Rosalie junior high football team has been playing in a coop with Lyons-Decatur. Between the two schools there were 23 players, and practices were held daily in Lyons. The B-R players were transported in a van and a suburban right after school over to Lyons where practice was held. Home games were split evenly, with two homes games in Bancroft and two in Lyons.
So far, things have been going great! The increased numbers has allowed practices to be more productive and competitive. Last year, neither team on its own even had enough to scrimmage at practice. The numbers this year allow the coaches to do so many more things at practice every day, which results in players improving at a much higher level. Players on this year’s team were: Arizona Riecken, Ryan Payton, Will Gatzemeyer, Devin Hegge, Darwin Snyder, Bradley Marr, Peyton Paulson, Jackson Beaudette, Devon Darnell, Kobe Lyons, Jaxon Johnson, Parker Paulson, Weston Pagels, Xandir Greve, Layne Miller, Zach Parker, Luke Kramer, Seth Totten, Dustin Burgett, Brayden Anderson, Braxton Bargmann, Kyler Gomez and Nick Ronnfeldt.
Another added benefit of the numbers is the team was able to play additional games or quarters against opponents that have enough players. This allowed more players to get playing time and develop their skills in game action. Against Howells-Dodge in the first game of the season, the team was able to play a 7th grade game and separate 8th grade game. One year ago, this was something that would have been impossible for both schools playing on their own.
In addition to having more players this year, the team also had more coaches. This resulted in the ability to split up into more groups at practice when working on technique and fundamentals as well as having more eyes on the field to make coaching decisions and technique corrections.
The team was coached by head coach T.J. Hilsinger, a teacher at Bancroft-Rosalie, and assistant coaches Bruce Knaak from Lyons-Decatur and Rob Smith, a Bancroft community member
There have been challenges to overcome, such as transportation and scheduling practices and games to coincide with the schedules of two different schools. It would be hard to argue that the challenges presented aren’t vastly outweighed by the benefits of the coop.
When asked about his feelings on the coop so far, coach Knaak said, “I think the co-op with Bancroft-Rosalie has been good so far. Without it, we probably would not have been fielding a JH football team for very long as we only have eight players from our school participating. I feel the coop has gone well. There will be bumps in the road as we do this for the first time, but we will do our best to get this fixed so it will be a good experience for both schools, students, parents, and fans.”
When asked on his opinion on how the season has gone, head coach T.J. Hilsinger said, “It has been an incredibly fun year. The kids are getting along great and the increased numbers is allowing us to put a better product on the field every week than either school could if they were by themselves. Our practices have been very competitive, and I feel like the competition for playing time is great for the kids to experience and helps us get better everyday. That is our goal, to get better everyday.”
The coop continues into the basketball season with the junior high boys and girls. School board members are considering cooping high school sports in the 2016-17 school year.