Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012: Relief on horizon for some merged high school teams?

   Leading off today: The St. Johnsville and Oppenheim-Ephratah school districts have extended their working agreement to allow students to combine forces on winter sports teams, the Observer-Dispatch reported over the weekend.

   The schools already had an agreement for fall sports under which Oppenheim-Ephratah soccer players can join the St. Johnsville soccer teams. The paper reported 25 Oppenheim-Ephratah students took advantage of the opportunity.

   This winter, Oppenheim-Ephratah students can play for St. Johnsville boys and girls modified, JV and varsity basketball teams. The districts shared sports programs and divided the cost until last year, when a merger proposition was defeated by Oppenheim-Ephratah voters. A revote could take place in December.

   The O-E/St. Johnsville collaboration is a no-brainer when you go by the numbers. St. Johnsville has a BEDS figure of 89 and O-E is at 73 for the current school year, which leaves their combined teams in Class D.

   What happens, though, if either or both schools grow a little bit next year, and suddenly the combined figure blows past 174? That's the maximum number of students for Class D teams in sports with five NYSPHSAA classifications such as basketball and soccer.

   The subject came up when Jeff DiVeronica of the Democrat and Chronicle surveyed the Section 5 landscape and found an explosion in the number of combine programs in recent years.

   In some cases, schools agree to consolidations in specific sports to keep struggling programs afloat while rebuilding the base at the junior high or JV levels. There are also situations such as the Rochester City School District, where the cost of fielding a team in every sport at every high school is financially impossible as even a $700 million annual budget is not enough to raise the number of college-ready seniors each June above a ridiculous 6 percent.

   Through the years, though, there have been instances across the state in which districts have declined requests to take in "orphaned" athletes because absorbing another school's BEDS number would push their team into a higher class.

   The Democrat and Chronicle reported help may be on the way. State officials plan to examine and possibly tweak the New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s policy, new Executive Director Robert Zayas told the paper.

   A few ideas have already been kicked around, including cutting the BEDS number of the smaller school in the consolidation by 25 or 50 percent. Section 5 Executive Director Ed Stores has played with a few such scenarios and found examples where schools are still negatively affected.

   As an alternative, Stores would like each of the state’s’ 11 sections to form classification committees to slot combined teams into the appropriate classes, taking into consideration the number of athletes being imported (as opposed to the inflexible BEDS figure) and some measure of their ability relative to the host school; adding three freshmen hockey players with no varsity experience might not move the needle, but adding two upperclassmen with vast experience might.

   Several sections already have similar structures for dealing with private schools.

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   NYT chimes in: The New York Times did a lengthy story this weekend on the issue of the U.S. Soccer Federation not allowing academy-level players participate in high school sports.

   The story focuses on a pair of New Jersey boys -- one who left high school soccer to join an academy team and another who dropped out of that system in order to return to his former school teammates.

   One aspect of the story that jumps out immediately is the cost. The USSF is trying to mimic the European system of developing players through a club system that emphasizes training rather than games, but the cost to American academy families is far higher -- $2,000 a year or more -- than what players in England are charged.

   Also, I hadn't seen this reported elsewhere, but the USSF plans to extend its academy program to younger age groups in the future. Barring a complete overhaul in philosophy, it will not be long before many top players will never suit up for a school team after the age of 12.

   That, though, brings about a concern noted in the story: What's going to happen once there are two or three times as many academy teams, each with 25 to 30 players at each age level? The cream will float to the top and a good many more will wind up with college scholarships.

   But what happens to the other 50-75 percent? Some will wash out all together and others will end up in college Division III soccer, pulling down some financial aid but no scholarship money. In other words, just like what happens now to players who come up through the high school ranks -- often for a lot less money paid out to play on club teams.

   I'm still on the fence about academy soccer, but somehow I don't think the stench I'm starting to smell is much different than aspects of AAU basketball that have been apparent for years.

   Football recap: The full list of Week 6 scores is now available on the site.

   Extra points: Carolyn Dottino-Buenahora, a senior at Long Island Lutheran, is 8-for-10 on extra-point attempts in two games for the Long Island Lutheran football team.