Osseo-Fairchild looks to join Dairyland Conference

There could soon be a new big dog — at least in terms of enrollment — in the Dairyland Conference. 

The Blair-Taylor school board heard last week that Osseo-Fairchild has requested to join the Dairyland in all sports except football. The Thunder are currently in the Cloverbelt and would remain in that conference for football, but are looking to shift in other sports. B-T Superintendent Lynn Halverson told the board that all of the DC schools had already approved the addition and later told the Times that the Cloverbelt schools had as well.

With unanimous approval from both conferences, O-F now awaits approval from the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association board of control, which could come later this month. If it gets final approval, O-F would join the DC in all sports beginning next school year. 

When questioned why O-F wanted to join the DC, Halverson told the board that it had seen a decrease in enrollment. 

The addition would shift the large and small divisions in the conference. O-F’s high school enrollment, according to the WIAA website, is 255, the next-highest in the DC is Augusta at 226. The only other schools with more than 200 high school students are Melrose-Mindoro, 223 and Whitehall, 216. O-F’s enrollment figure is a decrease of 15 from last year; over the last 10 years, the district has averaged about 267 high school students — ranging from 246 to 288 students in school.

“It’s surprising that they have dropped that many kids that fast,” B-T school board member Dave Thompson said. 

The district’s overall enrollment — 806, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction website — is also the largest in the conference. Whitehall is next with 773 students.

The plan as of last week would be to have six teams in the Large Dairyland Conference and five in the small. The smallest school in the large DC, based on the WIAA enrollment figures, would be Eleva-Strum (187) and the largest in the DC-Small would be Independence/Gilmanton (182). 

While specifics had yet to be finalized, Halverson indicated the preference would be for each team to play twice during the course of the season, meaning they would only need four non-conference games. 

During the 2022-23 season, the O-F girls basketball team went 17-9, 2-0 against DC teams. The boys basketball team was 14-11, 1-2 against DC teams and the baseball team was 14-9; 1-0 against DC teams.

In other matters, Halverson told the board that the district had contracted with Pank Chiropractic for athletic training services. The district, along with several others in the area, had previously used Gundersen Health Systems, but that service was no longer offered. 

Halverson said he’d like the board to vote on repairing the district’s athletic track at its October meeting. Halverson said the cost could range from $153,000 to $360,000, depending on if the pavement underneath the track also needs to be replaced. Halverson said they can’t know the condition of the pavement until the rubber is pulled up. 

The district superintendent said he’d like to have the project done next summer.