On Monday, November 24th the Sandhills Valley Maverick Cooperative Committee, made up of Stapleton and McPherson County school board members and administrators, met to conduct the Fall Sports Review. In addition, they also discussed how to proceed with the 2026 and 2027 football classification, given that the two boards voted differently in prior meetings.
Regarding the Fall Sports Review both the football and volleyball teams were recognized for their efforts on the season. Special recognition was extended to the volleyball team for their extraordinary competitiveness despite low numbers, and difficulty of schedule.
Regarding football classification, some of the conversation stemmed from the sentiments expressed by Stapleton patrons at the board’s regular November meeting. Equaling some of those patron sentiments, the committee’s discussion also spoke to the need for quality practices, student participation, competitive potential of the team in D-3 8-man and 6-man, and the logistics of gameday (i.e. travel distance, day and time of games for both 6 and 8-man football). It should be noted that a poll taken of 11th thru 8th grade boys at Stapleton and McPherson county revealed the following: 19 boys indicated that they would play 8-man football (resulting in 3 extra boys for practice), 14 boys indicated that they would plan 6-man football (resulting in 2 extra boys for practice, meaning 5 boys would not play 6-man football), 13 boys preferred 8-man and 6 preferred 6-man.
At the close of the meeting the committee was united in supporting play in D-3 8-man, which was also most supported by the boys who will be on the team. For engaged parents and patrons thank you for your input, you were heard and your viewpoints were helpful and appreciated. It is worth noting that the discussion of the Coop Committee included more specific information than either school board had previously considered. In addition, it should also be noted that an attempt was made to hold a meeting of the sport’s cooperative in September, but members were unable to find a date to do so. Consequently, the matter of football classification was turned over to each school board for discussion and action.
Before closing I would like to pass on some more important information for Maverick Basketball fans. Due to small numbers the Mavericks will normally plan a Girl’s game at 6pm. The girls’ game is classified as a Junior Varsity game, and at times they may plan less than 4 quarters. The boys’ varsity game will normally follow at 7:30pm. Again, due to low numbers there will not always be a boy’s JV game. Please check the school calendar on game day (https://www.stapletonschools.org/events), where we will do our best to keep the schedule updated. We will also do our best to send out notification via text, email, live feeds on our website, and Facebook for those changes required with short notice. Thank you for your support and patience.