Jefferson High School students could have opportunities to play Class-A high school softball and boys soccer as soon as next school year under a potential sports co-op the school is exploring with East Helena High School—a proposal that has gained momentum as East Helena looks to bolster its rosters and as middle school softball players in Clancy aim to keep playing while attending Jefferson High.
At its Feb. 15 meeting, the Jefferson High School Board of Trustees directed Principal Mike Moodry to further explore a sports co-op with East Helena High School. Moodry said that the Montana High School Association, which would have to approve a co-op, requires that such arrangements last for three years. Moodry and the board were careful to state that exploring the possibility of co-op sports did not necessarily mean that Jefferson would eventually enter into an agreement.
In a phone call last week, Moodry said that East Helena Vice Principal Shaun Murgel, who is also the school’s athletic director, approached him in January about combining forces to bolster East Helena’s softball squad. The school competes in Class A softball with just enough girls to field a varsity team, but not enough to also have a junior varsity team, according to Murgel. And softball isn’t the only sport at East Helena that could use additional players: Boys soccer could use help, too, Moodry said. East Helena High School currently has three grades of students, with 11th grade being the oldest; this year’s juniors will become the new facility’s first senior class next school year.
“I think it would be beneficial for both of us, help us shore up our numbers in both those programs. We’re excited we can work together,” Murgel said in a phone call on Tuesday. “I think it would be exciting to have those guys up here. We have great facilities for soccer and softball, and we hope this will work out. Hopefully both [school] boards will approve it and we can move forward.”
Murgel said he hoped he and Moodry could present an agreement to their respective school boards in June.
To comply with Title IX requirements that mandate parity between boys and girls sports, Moodry is targeting co-op boys soccer with East Helena beginning this fall and co-op softball beginning in spring 2023. In the call, he said he believed a co-op would entail bussing Jefferson athletes to East Helena for practices and home games and to board busses for away games. Jefferson, a large Class-B school, would pay for bussing, while East Helena would cover remaining expenses, he believed. Athletes would play in East Helena uniforms but the teams would be named “East Helena-Jefferson,” he said. Murgel described the same arrangement.
“If we had equal amounts of kids, we’d probably pay proportionally what the program cost, but they just want the numbers right now,” Moodry said, adding that, if Jefferson and East Helena were each contributing half of the teams’ rosters, then the co-op teams might get distinct uniforms and colors. But for now, “Us going from not having it to [going] into an existing program, we don’t have much leverage to change that stuff.”
Moodry stressed that the intent of a co-op would be to spur growth in each school’s softball and boys soccer programs, such that they could eventually stand on their own—and that could happen soon with softball at Jefferson.
“The whole goal of a co-op is that you are able to have separate programs at some point in the future. And honestly in softball I think that’s going to fly in Jefferson,” he said. “We’re looking at only being in the co-op for two, three years, and then starting our own [program] if we have the numbers, softball-wise.”
At the same time that Moodry and East Helena Vice Principal Shaun Murgel were beginning discussions about a co-op, a group of seventh-grade girls from Clancy were simultaneously crafting a request that Jefferson High School offer softball.
“They want to go to Jefferson and they want to support Jefferson, and they love the sport of softball,” said Marissa Ostby, whose daughter Sloan was one of three Clancy softball players who circulated a petition and helped to write and deliver a speech at the Feb. 15 board meeting requesting that Jefferson offer softball. “I’ve got to give all the credit to the girls. There was a little group of them and they had been talking about it for years, really. They played and they wanted to go to Jefferson.”
Ostby said in a phone call Tuesday that there’s “quite a bit of interest” in softball among Clancy students who will attend Jefferson in coming years, and more than 40 students from fifth through eighth grade signed the petition. The girls’ presentation to the board, featuring a color-coded speech that the girls took turns reading, “happened to coincide” with Moodry’s request to offer softball through a co-op, she said, adding that the girls would be fine donning East Helena uniforms if it means they can attend Jefferson for school while still getting to play high school softball.
After the meeting, she said, “They were thrilled, they were so excited for this potential that they were beaming. They were just excited for the opportunity to play.” She also lauded the board of trustees for their attention, kindness and respect toward the girls.
Kyrie Russ, an at-large trustee from Clancy whose daughter is friends with some of the softball players, said in a phone call Monday that “softball seems to be a really popular sport” and that “there’s a lot of enthusiasm about JHS right now,” but a lack of certain sports could influence kids to attend other schools. “I know there’s a lot of interest, not just in the seventh grade group.”
Moodry and Russ also commended the students for taking the initiative to approach the board with their request—sentiment echoed by the rest of the board during the meeting.
“I think it’s excellent when people get involved in local government, and pretty awesome when young people advocate for themselves,” Russ said on Monday. “It’s not a done deal but I feel like it’s a great opportunity.”
