Mahanoy mulls wrestling co-op with Marian
MAHANOY CITY – Mahanoy Area may soon explore a cooperative agreement with another school for wrestling.
Currently, Mahanoy Area has a co-op with Shenandoah Valley for wrestling.
At last Thursday’s school board meeting, Eric Moucheron, district athletic director, discussed the possibility of adding Marian Catholic to the fold.
He said that Marian previously sent their wrestlers to Panther Valley, whose numbers “skyrocketed.”
“They kind of cut ties with Marian,” Moucheron said, to keep from moving up a classification, leaving Marian “in limbo.”
Moucheron said that, in a co-op, the receiving school adds half of the sending school’s enrollment for the purpose of determining a classification, and can afford to take on both Shenandoah and Marian’s without moving to 3A.
Wrestling only has two classifications, he said, 2A and 3A. Mahanoy is 2A.
He also said that there were 18 varsity wrestlers at Mahanoy at the end of the season and had trouble filling some weight classes. Marian would add five or six wrestlers.
“It would make us more competitive, create depth, and allow for JV matches,” Moucheron said, adding that they had one JV match this year, the first he’d seen in five years.
Moucheron asked for permission to move forward with talks with Marian.
Board Member Dan Lynch said he’s fine with it “as long as we stay in our class.”
“It’s tough in 3A for wrestling, going down to Easton,” Lynch said. “They fill their gyms for wrestling.”
Moucheron did say that he could offer the co-op to Marian and be denied, but said it is worth exploring.
In other business, Lynch brought up the idea of an indoor athletic facility on North Main Street in the borough.
He said that, when he was Mahanoy City borough manager, they discussed getting the borough, school district, and the youth baseball and softball leagues together to explore building a batting cage facility.
“Our baseball team either goes up to Hazleton or goes to Hometown,” Lynch said, asking about forming an exploratory committee.
The location would be a borough-owned lot on North Main Street at East Vine and North Oak.
Lynch said he plans to pitch the idea to borough council. He said that, with all organizations involved, they could go after grants.
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