The Garden City Telegram
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LATEST NEWS: Hugoton joins GWAC prep league
Published 1/20/2009 in Sports : Area High Schools
By BRETT MARSHALL
The Hugoton USD 210 Board of Education voted Monday night by a 6-0 count with one abstention to accept an invitation to join the Great West Activities Conference, a newly organized league of Class 3A and 4A schools in western Kansas.
The GWAC will be constituted and then officially ready for all sports and activity competitions for the 2010-2011 school year.
"I'm excited about the new opportunity this league gives our students," Scott Schechter, activities director at Hugoton High School, said Tuesday. "Having grown up in Hugoton I have great memories of the Hi-Plains League but I'm excited about the future."
Hugoton, a Class 4A school (215 students in its sophomore-junior-senior classes at last classification alignment), was the largest of the 11-member Hi-Plains League. HHS had joined the HPL in the 1970s but Schechter believes the Eagles still will have competitions against several of the remaining Class 3A Hi-Plains League schools — Southwestern Heights, Lakin and Cimarron, specifically.
"Any of the schools that are within the short driving distance, I'm sure we'll still be looking at them for many events," Schechter said.
Hugoton will join fellow Hi-Plains League member school Holcomb (3A), Ulysses and Scott City (both 4A) from the Mid State Activities Association, and Colby (4A) and Goodland (3A) from the Northwest Kansas League in forming the new Great West Activities Conference.
"We wanted to make sure this new league kept the integrity of all our activities," Schechter said. "The Hi-Plains has always been strong in forensics, scholars bowl, debate and other activities and we wanted to make sure our students had access to high quality competition."
While Hugoton will now be in a league with schools more close to its student population, Schechter said the move would raise the bar for the school's participation.
"We'll have to have the bar raised but we think playing schools our size during the regular season will help us when we see schools that size in regionals, sub-state and state competitions," Schechter said.
The remaining members of the HPL are Southwestern Heights, Cimarron and Lakin (Class 3A), Stanton County, Satanta, Sublette, Syracuse, Wichita County and Elkhart (all Class 2A).
Found 1 comment(s)!
Too Bad For Lakin
If only Lakin had the ability to think of the future! They would fit into this league great, but must be worried they might take a lump or two and want to remain a whale in a pond of guppies!
Posted by: GWAC Supporter on 1/21/2009
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