Clarion, Clarion-Limestone to form Co-op
Tagged under: District 9, News
Billy Splain | January 16, 2019
Once rivals living literally next door to each other, the Bobcats of Clarion and the Lions of Clarion-Limestone will be rivals no longer. Last night both districts held separate meetings and each voted to accept a co-op for football between the two schools. Clarion approved the measure with an 8-0 vote while Clarion-Limestone approved by a 7-2 vote. This is the eighth co-op ventured in District 9. Union/A-C Valley, Ridgway/Johnsonburg, Otto-Eldred, Sheffield, Coudersport, Brockway and Kane are all members of a co-op. And with talks of Cameron County, Elk County and Sheffield also near levels that would require looking elsewhere this may not be the last co-op we hear of in the district.
Current Clarion head coach Larry Wiser is excited about the merger of teams. “I live exactly a mile and a half from the school and I drive through Limestone to get there. Last year one of C-Ls best players lived just below the stadium which a block from the school. It just makes sense.”
With teams all over the state facing similar situations, co-ops are becoming more common. “The numbers are dictating on both sides of the fence. This had to take place in order to field a program that is viable. We had talked about this a year ago and it kinda fell apart but it’s reality now” said Wiser.
The communities themselves, almost all of which are pretty much next-door neighbors, seem to be embracing the change. “My wife has a salon and she was saying that the communities seem to be in favor of it. The kids are in favor of it. I had a kid come up to me last week and say “coach I don’t care what color I’m wearing I just want to play football” Wiser said of the communities.
“I’m excited for it” said C-L head coach Dave Eggleton. “Larry (Wiser) and have talked about it and we saw the future. Not just the the success of the program but the safety of the players. Last year they were 15-16 kids it’s hard to really play a game like that without thinking of the safety of the kids. We wanted to offer the kids a safe opportunity.”
“These kids are all friends and they’re really excited about this” said Eggleton of the C-L players.”
As for who will lead the team, Wiser said right now they aren’t sure but they do have a specific plan they’d like to see. “We aren’t sure right now about the coaching situation but we did ask for certain specifics and I hope that we can come to an agreement. We’d like to see a staff of six coaches. We wanted to have coaches from both teams. Right now I’m not the coach, and I’ll certainly be applying but hopefully it’ll all work out. Dave Eggleton (C-L head coach) is a great guy and I’d love to work with him again.”
Dave Eggleton believes level heads in the community have prevailed after several tries to make this happen. “They put aside the “I bleed black and orange or blue and gold. They really don’t care about that so much anymore. They just want to play football. The adult needed to realize that it wasn’t a big deal to the kids having that big rivalry.”
As for the numbers, the team will remain in 2A. The co-op includes Clarion, North Clarion and Clarion-Limestone. “This year it will be Clarion, that’s the only way we could do it with the PIAA rules. With C-L being 1A we wouldn’t be able to play down. Then after this year, for the next cycle, we’ll see where it falls and what we’ll deal with the team name, mascot and such but it looks like it will still be a 2A team” said Wiser.
Logistics of scheduling and practice are also part of the agree the two came up with. They will play 2 games at C-L according to the agreement. C-L would like to have their own homecoming, Clarion wants to have one to so they’ll have to work that out. Clarions 10th game this year was to be C-L but talks are in the works with picking up Union/ACV which used to be a big rival. All practices will be at Clarion. After this year, the districts will entertain conversation as to whether to keep the Clarion Bobcat name or come up with a new name.
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