Another sports season comes to an end

The high school winter sports season comes to a close this weekend with the State Boys Basketball Tournament, the oldest event sponsored by the Minnesota State High School League.

The past winter was a successful one for Trojan sports as a whole, with each of the teams being competitive in their activities. Highlights include the adapted floor hockey team qualifying for the state tournament (see page 10), the boys basketball team winning 23 games and being ranked in the top 10 of Class AAAA most of the season and the wrestling, girls hockey and gymnastics teams all being ranked in state at one time or another during the season. The girls basketball team had a few tough times due to injuries, but still provided a thrilling season as they faced a number of tough opponents this season. The Trojans played five of the eight teams in the Class AAAA tournament and also played twice against Class AAA champion Orono.

As was mentioned in a story in last week’s paper, New Prague High School is exploring a move from the Wright County Conference to the Metro West Conference. The school continues to grow and is nearly three times the size of some of the other Wright County Conference schools, and twice the size of some of the schools they compete with in the conference’s East Division. School officials had an idea when the Missota Conference broke up in 2014 that the move to the WCC would likely be a temporary solution due to the size disparity. The Metro West would have likely been a better fit three years ago, but when New Prague applied they were turned down for membership.

Since that time, the school has moved into class AAAA in sports such as basketball, baseball and softball, and moved into higher competitive levels in other sports, such as dance, gymnastics and soccer. Next week, the Minnesota State High School League will release class and section assignments for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years, and Activities Director Brad Skogerboe said he expects New Prague to be assigned to the highest level in most other sports.

Four of the eight current teams in the Metro West - Chanhassen, Chaska, Benilde- St. Margaret’s and Richfield - were at one time members of the Missota Conference, so there will be some familiarity if the Trojans make the move. The other schools - Bloomington Jefferson, Bloomington Kennedy, St. Louis Park and Robbinsdale Cooper - were all once members of the Lake Conference, but have been experiencing declining enrollment and are much closer in size to New Prague than some of the WCC members.

Waconia is joining New Prague in exploring the move from the WCC to the Metro West. Waconia is the second largest WCC school, and is growing at a faster rate than New Prague. The Trojans and Wildcats have developed a good rivalry over the past three years and it would be beneficial if they made the move with New Prague.

The one thing that could keep this move from happening is perception. At last week’s school board workshop, Skogerboe said some of the Metro West teams seem to think New Prague is too far to drive. However over the past few years, New Prague has scheduled nonconference games with many of the Metro West schools and have found that the perception may not, in fact, be reality.

As noted last week, if the change were to occur, the soonest it could take place would be for the 2018-19 season. Check The Times for updates.

* * * * * With the end of one season comes the beginning of another. Spring sports are underway at New Prague High School. Last week, the softball and track and field teams began workouts, and this week the baseball and golf teams started practice. Tennis and adapted softball will begin in the coming weeks. Some of the teams will be in action by the first week in April. Check The Times for schedules and look for the Spring Sports Section in the April 6 edition of The Times.

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