The Northport Public School Board of Education (BOE) discussed its athletics mission, philosophy and belief statements at its regular meeting on March 10.
The district and its students have utilized and been part of cooperative athletic programs for years, like many other schools in Leelanau County. Northport Superintendent Neil Wetherbee said its district co-op teams for various sports with Suttons Bay Public School have been going very well, but the board wanted to make sure that their athletic mission was revisited and aligned with their current philosophy.
“We had a coach manual from about 2006 that had our statements. It was really looking at how or if the board wanted to adjust those statements to match what their expectations are today… So that was to sort of let us know why we have sports and what our goals are with having them. This (discussion) is the board cleaning up their guidance to help me make decisions about how to move athletics forward on a day-today basis,” Wetherbee said. “We have a long-term relationship with Suttons Bay. They don’t kick us off their teams when they don’t need us and we don’t jump off their teams when we’re a part of this. We like long-term stability and they’ve been a good partner for us.”
Wetherbee said athletics at Northport has evolved over the years with the fluctuation of student population. According to BOE February minutes, enrollment at Northport is currently at its lower end of fluctuation. At the February meeting, Wetherbee discussed different ways he would increase those student count numbers, with a goal of 234 students. With this total number in mind, the average would be 18 students per grade and would allow Northport to bring back wildcat athletics as well as more extracurricular activities. However, a student interest survey presented to the BOE in February indicated that there was not enough interest in many of the options to make them a reality.
“Our current student population of 127 makes it nearly impossible to field enough students consistently for our own teams,” the February minutes from the superintendent report read.
Athletic participation rates, not just at Northport but at schools across the country, are just not what it used to be pre-2000s, Wetherbee explained, adding that co-op sports with other districts like Suttons Bay was something they needed to transition to. From varsity boys and girls soccer and basketball to middle and high school softball and baseball, Northport coops all of its sports with Suttons Bay, including robotics. Wetherbee said although Northport had its own robotics team pre-covid, the program works better with large numbers, so they joined forces with Suttons Bay as they observed those numbers decrease there, too.
“So we’re unique in the fact that we co-op everything, but we’re not unique at all in the fact that we do co-op,” he said.
The BOE also discussed the potential of creating an athletic committee, something the district had in place pre-covid. Wetherbee said the committee helped with organizing a lot of the long-term planning for sports at school.
“We haven’t had a committee in quite awhile, so there is tentative discussion to reform it, but we have to have our mission and belief statement hammered out first,” he said. “So no decision on that right now, but it’s nice to have a group of minds who are helping to look at numbers and figure out what’s our best path forward.”
