by Jean Schurman, Victor
On December 19, 2022, 406 Sports reported the co-op between Drummond and Philipsburg was dissolved. For me and I’m sure several other Class C fans, this was very much appreciated. Flint Creek, as the co-op is called, has been in the 8-man state championship game four times since the co-op was formed in 2014. The Titans were state champions in 2017, 2018, and 2020. Last year, they advanced to the quarter finals before being eliminated.
As expected, there was a huge objection to this proposal to do away with this co-op, mainly coming from Drummond and Philipsburg. MHSA agreed to hold a hearing on the proposal on Saturday, January 14, at 8 am in Missoula. There were people from the Flint Creek Valley at the hearing but there were not any other schools represented. Were these other schools even invited?
Of course there were people wanting to speak in favor of keeping the Flint Creek co-op. What wasn’t covered was how the other schools and programs felt about this. One comment I heard on the TV news regarding this was a gentleman from Philipsburg who said how tough it would be on the town to disband the co-op.
I agree that it would be tough for Philipsburg but that should not be an issue unless MHSA is willing to talk to other teams and schools who Flint Creek plays.
I was the sports editor for the Bitterroot Star for 24 years. As such, I attended a lot of football games. I am also a resident of Victor and have watched a lot of Victor football. My brothers played in the 1960s, my nephews in the 1990s, and my son from 1999 to 2002. During this time, the numbers were comparable between Drummond, Philipsburg, Victor, and other Class C schools.
I currently have two grandsons playing for Victor. The look of dejection on their faces when they see how many players Flint Creek has on their team is tough to see. Granted, Victor has not had the best record in the past few years but they are trying to rebuild. Watching a team with 17 or 18 players look over and see 28 or 30 players is tough. No one thought to ask about the impact of co-oping on these other teams and/or communities. My point is, if you (MHSA) take into account the views of a couple of communities, you need to look at all the communities in the districts.
Thank you to MHSA for instituting the policy that co-op teams will have to move up a classification for competition if their schools’ combined enrollment exceeds the maximum limit for the class they are in.
Now, if MHSA will look at Class B schools dropping down to 8-man, that would be great. If MHSA is going to hold co-ops accountable for their numbers, they need to not only look at B schools dropping down but, hold them (Class B schools) accountable for just that, their numbers. And also not let Class B schools drop down just because they’re not having a good couple years. It’s not the actual Class C schools’ fault that these Class B schools can’t compete at the level their numbers require them to be classified at.