Numbers don’t add up for Wingers in new Missota

While a boon for the full Missota Conference, the admission of Chanhassen and Chaska high schools does not benefit Red Wing, according to Red Wing Supt. Stan Slessor and athletic director Matt Schultz. As a result, they said, the Wingers must remain watchful for a conference that will be a better fit.

But a league composed of similarly sized area teams may be hard to find.

“In southeastern Minnesota you don’t find many Red Wings so it’s kind of a dilemma,” Slessor said.

The two new conference members are problematic for Red Wing because of their size. Chanhassen and Chaska will each have about 1,300 students when they join the Missota Conference at the start of the 2010-11 academic year.

Red Wing will have the smallest enrollment among the conference’s public schools this fall — 833 students — and the district’s enrollment has reached a “plateau,” Slessor said.

Two other Missota conference schools have seen rapid growth, though. Shakopee’s enrollment has risen by 203 in the past year. Prior Lake, the largest Missota school, is up 119 students. Its projected enrollment is 2,003 for 2009-10.

“We’re at a competitive disadvantage in some sports as other schools grow and grow,” Slessor said.

That explains Slessor’s decision to vote against the admission of both Chanhassen and Chaska. He was the only superintendent to do so. The two schools were admitted by a vote of 6-1 on July 15.

The schools’ acceptance was made possible because the conference superintendents first voted unanimously to suspend a league bylaw pertaining to the deadline for requesting acceptance into the conference. Chanhassen and Chaska applied after the deadline.

Tags: red wing, missota conference, sports