Cobleskill-Richmondville won’t be joining the Western Athletic Conference and have its teams play neighboring rivals Schoharie and Middleburgh regularly.
Superintendents of the 11 WAC schools last week voted 8-3 to deny admission, ending a months-long effort by C-R to enter the conference.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” said C-R Athletic Director John Henry. “Kids are number one for us, and we thought the move was best for our student-athletes.”
Starting in the winter, C-R sought to join the WAC because it’s more similar to Middleburgh, Schoharie and others in the conference than the city and suburban schools in the Colonial Council.
Rekindling rivalries with neighboring schools was a plus for some C-R officials.
Also, C-R is the second-smallest school in the Colonial, and several teams struggle in that conference.
C-R and similar-sized Johnstown were seeking to join the WAC. Those two are larger than almost all WAC schools, but the plan was to split the conference into large and small school divisions. In that setup, small schools wouldn’t have played larger ones often.
Joining the WAC seemed favorable for the two schools until Johnstown withdrew its application because it has a strong field hockey team. Neither C-R nor any WAC school plays field hockey.
With Johnstown out, adding C-R––only one large school––made the large school-small school division less attractive, according to Schoharie Superintendent David Blanchard.
Mr. Blanchard was a ‘yes’ vote for C-R even without Johnstown, feeling the addition would make the WAC stronger and more competitive.
“But without Johnstown, that complicated the matter” for other superintendents, Mr. Blanchard said. “It caused some concern.”
Johnstown, now in the Foothills Council, may resolve its field hockey issue and reapply to the WAC, both Mr. Blanchard and C-R Superintendent Matt Sickles said.
At Monday night’s school board meeting, Mr. Sickles said C-R could go independent for a year, then apply to Section II officials to be placed in a conference.
Mr. Sickles thought that route was unlikely, as did Mr. Henry. Working by itself, C-R would have to schedule all its games at all levels––varsity, junior varsity and modified––for all sports, a monumental job.
And it’s also unclear in which conference Section officials would place C-R after the independent year, Mr. Sickles said.
It could be the WAC, the Colonial, the Foothills or the Patroon, though travel for the Patroon conference would be difficult because many are distant.
“At this point, we’re likely to stand pat” in the Colonial, Mr. Sickles added.
Nonetheless, C-R will consider its options while continuing in the Colonial, Mr. Henry said.
“It’s just another bump in the road that we’ll get over,” he said of the WAC decision.