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And I want to know one more thing. BM students have to pay an "athletic participation fee" to play sports at McCort. Does McCort, or their students who wrestle for Westmont, have to pay the Westmont-Hilltop School District for the privilege of wrestling for Westy? I mean, why should BM or their students get to wrestle for free when they have to pay at their own school? Is Westy willing to pay the increased expenses involved in taking in more athletes? Things just don't measure up. As ramfan just asked, what are the benefits Westmont receives from this move?

Likely one of their "benefactors" or an endowment, will take care of the finances.

Look for a second collection at your local catholic church starting next wrestling season!

You have to taste good to wrestle for Westmont don't you?

If there is a participation fee at Westmont, the BM kids will have to pay it as well.

You guys asked about the benefit to Westmont... can you honestly not see it? A co-op with a bishop is a tremendous advantage to the wrestling program. Even it were with BC, it would've been smart. You can now bring in a kid from New Jersey who's a stud wrestler and he can wrestle at Westmont. You talk about not having to worry about borders? Now you're talking about not having to worry about the same state? Think I'm wrong? A few years ago CC had a wrestling coach who was awesome, basically had the Young Guns program headed directly into his HS wrestling program. He approached the school board about a co-op in wrestling with BC and was denied. He then quit. This was the pathway for CC to become a powerhouse in wrestling, because they had the right coach (with connections) and the right kind of co-op (one which has ZERO borders). Maybe CC actually listened to input from their AD and made the choice to instead preserve the rest of their programs instead of making wrestling great and losing more kids to BC. Well done by the decision makers. Westmont just made their decision, now we'll see if their coach can pull off what CC's coach wanted to do.

The worst move in this is to the other sport programs at Westmont... programs which compete against McCort. You've just hampered your entire athletic program in order to make your wrestling team stronger. In the long run, this was not wise. Also, you've made your AD look like a joke. Nice job.

VAD1...
Sounds to me like the University of Bishop McCort will finally be able to take over the LHAC for good because the FH wrestlers will now transfer to BM. That new FH school better have all the bells and whistles or BM will pick them clean. Question, will the co-op will obviously benefit BM but I don't see how it can hurt Westy. The additional bodies from the co-op won't hurt the wrestling since they are AAA. Will it hurt the other sports? Will they also move to AAA or is the classification only for that single sport. Also, are there any sportsminded folks on that Westy school board or just a bunch of stuffed shirts making decisions based on anything but facts?

One year too late for Rizzo.... Imagine he and Duplin beating the crap out of each other ever day on the mat. They both would have been State Champs!!!

Guru

Maybe it will force McCort to play AA in football due to a larger enrollment

First of all, you give dress shirt, tie and jeans way more credit .. this is a school board decision. As far as football, lets be honest... the next couple years were going to be rough, regardless. With Duplin and Burnheimer graduating, its a tough road for WH, those guys are not easily replaced. My point is, dont blame the co-op for the demise of WH football, thats been in the works for a bit. And it had very little to do with Merriman transfering to McCort.

Secondly, schools that co-op DO pay $$ for their students to participate. It ends up saving them money in the long run and allows them to offer the sport without financially strapping the district. In Ferndales case, they only have a few wrestlers who are out so they would not be able to, nor could afford to sport a varsity team. This is has been a win-win through the years for the Ferndale kids and the WH kids who benefited from having some talented wrestlers on their team.

Lastly, the co-ops run in two year cycles...so really if Ferndale or McCort are not happy, they are free to leave every two years! Last cycle, Ferndale was one of the only schools in D6 whose male enrollment went up, bumping WH wrestling into AAA (regardless of how many wrestlers actually wrestled from Ferndale, WH had to count the enrollment). WH is going to be AAA, whats wrong with doing what you need to do to stay competitive?.. This will give McCort students an opportunity to a top notch wrestling program...how can that be a bad thing? Competition is not a bad thing!!!

Neither would all Catholic schools competing against only other Catholic schools.

Good point, Manfred, and I am not here to argue that; merely to support Westmont's desire to provide the opportunity to wrestle to students who may not otherwise have it, and for their decision to explore the co-op with McCort, after several other schools in the community turned it down. As far as what effect this will have on the football program at WHHS, well, that's a question that will be answered in its own time. Merriman transferring to McCort is not the reason why they've had losing seasons the last few years; one young man does not make or break a "team." But the bottom line is, the people making the decisions believe there will be a lot more good that comes out of this situation than bad. It sounds to me like there are a lot of sour grapes where McCort is concerned on this forum. Let's not forget, McCort also has a stellar educational system, and of all of the schools in the area, obtains the highest number of, as well as largest dollar amount, in terms of scholarships for graduating students in the area, so students are transferring to McCort for more than just sports. Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!