Homer Alaska - Sports

Homer hockey may have another bite at the apple after the Feb. 21-22 ASAA Board of Directors meeting.

The Alaska School Activities Association Board of Directors rejected an amendment that would have allowed hockey players in nearby Russian Old Believer villages to play hockey at Homer High School. However, they heard the case and decided to propose an amendment of their own.

The new amendment would allow 1A and 2A schools to co-op with larger area schools for team activities not offered in the smaller schools, so long as the total combined enrollment does not exceed 451 students.

Homer High School's current reported enrollment is 404.

Each school would have to register for the cooperative program on an activity-by -activity basis. So Homer could, in theory co-op with Voznesenka during the hockey season, keeping combined enrollment below 451, and, potentially, Homer High could co-op with another village during baseball season.

If Homer were to co-op with Voznesenka they would not be able to co-op with another school with an enrollment greater than 11 during the hockey season.

The amendment will be distributed to all regions and a vote could push the measure through in April and would take effect for the fall season.

If the vote goes through, Homer will be able to co-op hockey players from nearby villages who were unable to play hockey this year due to a lack of a village hockey program and ASAA's prohibition.

Cinda Martin, president of the Homer Hockey Association said, "They didn't take our amendment, but they saw it and heard what we were saying. Region III was originally behind it and the ASAA staff and board were very receptive to what we were saying."

ASAA Board President Terry Martin said, "No one was comfortable going and amending for a school. What we wanted to do was focus it very tightly, but make it available to other schools."

The amendment does not apply to individual sports, including swimming and diving, wrestling, track and field, cross country running or skiing.

The logic behind excluding individual sports is that there is not a required number of participants to have a program.

That's a subject Terry Martin is familiar with as principal of Ninilchik High School. "There have been years where we've had four wrestlers. Even though you'd like to have more wrestlers, you can have one wrestler," said Terry Martin.

Schools are responsible for providing students with options to participate in activities, but what would happen if a student wanted to be part of an individual sport that wasn't already offered at their school?

"The school can say that we're going to have a swim team even if there's just one (student). Even if schools could work out a system where they'd bus the kid over to work out with the bigger school's swim team and be coached by the coaches, that kid would still represent the smaller school," said Gary Matthews, executive director of ASAA.

To try and keep the field level, ASAA requires programs that co-op not to cut students from the homeschool program.

"No students can be cut from the homeschool. The idea isn't to have 25 students in Homer and bring in 15 from elsewhere and have 15 kids lose their spot," said Martin.

The amendment would allow Homer and Voznesenka to participate in the cooperative program for Hockey.

Homer High School, with 404 students and Voznesenka with an enrollment of 36 would combine for a total of 440 students, and a combined hockey team would be eligible.

Though Terry Martin has never heard of more than one school joining with one larger school for a single program, it could be possible for two or more schools to co-op with a larger school for a single program if the total enrollment stays below 451.

To be eligible for the cooperative program, all school principals involved would have to be in agreement, along with the district superintendent. Then the application would be sent to ASAA where Matthews and the ASAA Board have the final say.

Though nothing is decided until all regions review the amendment and the ASAA board votes in April, Terry Martin is optimistic that this amendment is a fair solution.

"Everybody in the room was very pleased with the outcome so I'd be very surprised if it didn't sail through. I truly think this is a win all around," said Terry Martin.

Ryan M. Long can be reached at ryan.long.@homernews.com.