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Breitung hockey to include Iron County schools

KINGSFORD — The Breitung Township Schools Board has agreed to add Forest Park and West Iron County school districts to its hockey co-op program for 2017-18.

The board Monday accepted the athletic committee’s recommendation to let students from the two Iron County districts play with the Flivver-based program.

The two-year pilot arrangement will be reviewed annually.

“The protocol is the same as we have had in the past with other districts — local students will not be excluded from being on the team,” Superintendent Craig Allen said.

The Flivver team already has a hockey co-op with Iron Mountain, Norway and North Dickinson schools. The two additional districts mean that all the schools in the Dickinson-Iron Intermediate School District now can participate.

Even with that number of schools, the team still will be in Division 3 and usually play up to Division 2 to be more competitive, Allen added.

The other Upper Peninsula schools in Division 3 are in the Copper Country area and compete against each other. If the Flivvers were to play in that division, they would have to travel to northern lower Michigan to compete. Nearby schools in D-2 include Escanaba, Negaunee and Marquette.

Allen said that they can carry 22 to 24 on a team but only anticipate 17 to 18 participating this year.

“We will be monitoring it and making sure that no one is eliminated who wants to play,” Allen added.

Athletic Director Al Unger said they can only carry 23 on the roster during tournament time.

The school board also gave the go-ahead for Kingsford High School students to co-op with the Norway-Vulcan Area Schools for a boys and girls ski team.

Allen said Norway will handle the details, including administrative duties and fundraising for the teams.

Unger said about three to four Kingsford High School students are interested in the ski team, which probably will use Pine Mountain.

They dropped the program, which was run as a co-op with Iron Mountain and Norway, a year ago due to low participation, Allen said.

“It’s a good thing to provide this opportunity for that small niche of students who want to ski,” Allen said.

With both other schools dropping out as well, Norway had a boys team last year with the one girl competing as well.

Other schools with ski teams in the Upper Peninsula include Marquette, Ironwood and Houghton.

The board Monday also agreed to expand the dual sports program at Kingsford High School in 2017-18. This past spring, students could participate in one individual and one team sport in the same season.

For the coming school year, the students can be in two individual sports in the same season or one team and one individual sport.

“It seemed to work out well. There were only a few select kids that were dual sport athletes,” Unger said.

He added students and their parents all sign a contract before they are allowed to proceed in dual sports.

Both board members Doug McDowell and Mark Pugh questioned whether being in dual sports might affect the student’s grades. But Allen said the students involved were in the top 10 percent of their class.

Unger agreed, noting seniors were the ones doing this in the spring.

Board President Bob Hendrickson said that the athletic committee also discussed making sure pre-season training is optional and does not determine who will play when the season starts.

Allen noted it sometimes is difficult for students to get training times because schedules vary.

“We want to make sure that everyone is on the same page with this,” Hendrickson said.

In other business, the board approved hiring teacher John Lorenzoni as the middle school girls basketball coach for 2017-18.

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