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Prague, NBC to join forces on football field

Lack of players prompts Prague school board to unanimously approve co-op agreement

by Nathan Arneal
published 11/11/09

Twenty-six patrons packed the tiny common space of Prague High School last Wednesday for a special meeting of the Prague Board of Education. They came to voice opinions on the future of the Prague football program and witness the vote that would decide its fate.

The topic of discussion was a proposed agreement to co-op football with North Bend Central where Prague would send its high school football players to play for NBC. The two schools have been co-oping junior high football for the past three seasons.

Details of the Co-op

Team name: The football team will keep NBC’s name, North Bend Central Tigers, and colors: black, orange and white.
Coaches: NBC will provide the head coach and three assistants. Prague will provide one assistant coach. If Prague cannot provide an assistant, North Bend will provide the fourth assistant.
Game play: All practices and home games will be at North Bend Central.
Transportation: NBC will furnish transportation to all away contests. Prague will be responsible for getting the players from Prague to and from practice. While Prague has not formally decided how it will do that yet, all five of its board members expressed interest in the district bussing the Prague players to NBC for practice.
Costs: NBC will assume costs for equipment and game day requirements (officials, etc.). NBC will receive all gate receipts. Coaches will be paid by their home school district. Prague will contribute $100 per football player. Prague superintendant Ray Collins said this is in line with the amount paid by Prague’s football budget for its own team.
Length of agreement: The agreement will be effective for two years, beginning with the 2010 football season. At then end of that term, the schools have the option of ending the co-op or renewing it. If Prague ceases to exist as an independent school district before the two years are up, the co-op would be voided.
What about other sports? At this time the two schools have not formally discussed co-oping in any other sport. Prague currently co-ops with David City for softball. The deadline to declare co-ops for other fall sports is not until late next spring. The co-op deadline for football is in early November because the NSAA begins the process of reclassification and scheduling for next football season during the winter.

During an emotional vote that had at least one board member wiping tears from her eye, the board approved the co-op agreement between Prague and North Bend with a 5-0 vote. Five nights later, the NBC school board approved the same agreement 6-0, making the pact official.

Prague had 16 players out for football during an injury-plagued 1-7 campaign in 2009. During this past two-year classification period, Prague’s three-year enrollment count of 29 ranked 58 out of the 59 schools playing Class D-2 eight-man football. Of the 15 teams that played six-man football last season, nine of them had larger enrollment figures than Prague.

Superintendant Ray Collins said if Prague were to field its own football team for the 2010 season, the best-case scenario would give them 14 players. He warned of injuries possibly reducing that number even further. He also acknowledged rumors that a number of potential players are considering transferring out of the district.

Activities director Kevin Behne said that he researched six-man football, and the closest opponent for the Panthers would be 74 miles away. Many opponents would require more than five hours on the road, one-way.

Before the vote, citizens in attendance were given a chance to address the board. Of the 12 people who spoke, five of them said they were against the co-op, while one said he was for it. Four of the people who spoke against the proposal were current Prague football players. The remaining six people did not explicitly express an option but asked the board questions concerning the co-op agreement.

The first two people to speak were players from this season’s team, dressed in blue Panther football jerseys. Both asked the board to vote against the co-op.

“All I want to do is keep a team here,” sophomore Brock Vyhlidal said. “The whole crowd loves Friday night football and coming to the games. Be a hero tonight. Please vote against this.”

Jay Brown said one of the reasons he and his family moved to Prague was so his son could have a chance to play football. The family had moved from a larger district, where not everyone got to play, Brown said.
“If we’re going to have a school,” he said, “and we have students who want to play, I think we should let them play.”

Collins responded by saying the co-op may provide more chances for Prague kids to see the field. He pointed to NBC’s full junior varsity schedule and occasional freshman quarters as one of the things that impressed him most about the co-op deal. Prague currently does not offer JV football.

“So our little kids, our youngsters that practice every day and stand on the sidelines and never get in the game (on Fridays), may actually have the opportunity to practice and play with and against kids of similar abilities in a JV program,” Collins said. “So we may be providing more opportunities for our kids to play, rather than less.”

One parent said his opinion on the co-op depended on whether or not Prague’s school will be open in another year.

Board president Marlene Wade said the school is currently operating with a levy override that expires in 2011. Once the override expires, the school won’t be able to afford to stay open.

“That’s the hand we’ve been dealt and that’s what we know right now,” Wade said. “So we’re trying to make decisions based on the fact that we will not have enough funds to operate this school district after the year 2011.”

Collins said that money may not even be the chief obstacle to staying open. He said Prague is looking at fewer than 100 kids in its K-12 system next year, a figure that will make accreditation a struggle. Without accreditation, the school would not get state aid and its students would have more difficulties getting into colleges.

“It’s getting to a point where it’s less about money and more about offering academic promise for our students,” Collins said.

Since the NSAA calculates football classifications and assigns schedules every two years, the co-op between Prague and North Bend would be a two-year deal. However, Collins said North Bend understands that if Prague were to close in 2011 and consolidate with a different district, NBC could lose the Prague players to the new district.

Collins, who has twin sons that were juniors on the Panther football team this fall, also gave a cautionary example of Niobrara High School. He said Niobrara tried to enter a co-op agreement in 2008 and didn’t get it done. When the 2009 season rolled around, only 10 kids went out and the school ended up forfeiting all its games.

“Taking my own emotion out of it,” Collins said, “from an administrative perspective, if you want to have the opportunity for your kids to play football, (the co-op) is the thing to do. I don’t know if 14 or 12 or 10 is enough kids to field a team (in Prague).”

Prague freshman Alex Muessigmann played junior high football at North Bend as part of the junior high co-op. Before the board took its vote, he made one final plea.

“My junior high years at North Bend were probably one of the greatest experiences of my life,” Muessigmann said. “I got to play 11-man football and meet a whole bunch of new people. But then my ninth grade year when I got to play for my school, it was tons more better than playing for any other school.”

As the board roll was called, one by one, the members voted in favor of the co-op.

Following the meeting, an emotional Brock Vyhlidal, the sophomore tackle, was trying to come to grips with the decision.

“It’s going to be rough next year. I don’t want to lose these colors,” he said, pointing to the blue Panther jersey he was wearing. “These are my colors... I’m a little upset. But it’s what’s best for the team. I plan on playing for North Bend next year. I’ll be there.”

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