Recommendations and support addressed regarding proposed league

The potential ending of a conference rivalry with neighboring Benilde-St. Margaret’s and the beginning of a new conference has triggered a varied reception from students, staff, administrators and coaches at Park.
The decision to depart from the North Suburban Conference for a new conference was announced by athletic director Andy Ewald at a Feb. 25 School Board meeting.
School Board member Nancy Gores said during the board meeting she was most impressed by the closeness of the new schools.
“Having done the communicating up to North Branch and Chisago (Lakes) with my kids before, it was hard for students to keep up with academics and compete in sports in the old conference,” Gores said.
However, some students such as sophomore volleyball player Kali Vinson said they are concerned that Park would no longer be in the same conference as teams it has established rivalries with during the past eight years.
“There’s always excitement when we compete with the people in our conference, especially Benilde,” Vinson said. “It would feel weird to play different schools, and we wouldn’t know what to expect from them.”
However, despite these concerns, other students such as sophomore Gabe Pimsler said they are looking forward to the opportunities a new conference will provide. Pimsler, who plays soccer and runs track, said he is especially excited about the prospect of a new conference because he believes Park can be competitive against all the teams in the new conference.
“There has definitely been a long-standing tradition with some of the schools that we play, and I would hate to see that go,” Pimsler said. “But as a both a fan and an athlete, I would find it interesting to see ourselves in a new conference.”
Some coaches such as Dave Breitenbucher have expressed positivity about the move as well.
Breitenbucher, who co-coaches both boys’ and girls’ tennis and head coaches boys’ basketball, said he thinks a new conference will provide a fresh atmosphere.
“I love the idea of those schools south of us potentially being in the new conference,” Breitenbucher said. “I know a lot of their coaches and they run solid programs at those schools, like Chaska for example.”
In addition to the new athletic competition in the proposed conference, the new league could provide new opponents for Park’s activities programs.
Although the new conference will lack some current Park opponents, athletic director Andy Ewald said most teams and programs should still be able to schedule games with North Suburban Conference members through non-conference play in the future.
“I’m very happy. We did excellent,” Yaeger said. “We overcame the obstacle that our team did not have a diving team (an automatic loss of 10 points per meet). We swam hard all season long.”

Proposed conference demographics

-Average enrollment of schools in proposed conference is 1,513 students compared to Park’s 1,370 students
-The percentage of minority students at Park is 37.4%. The rest of the schools within the  proposed conference have an average of 36.2% students of color
-The number of students at Park who are in athletics or activities is 719, while the rest of the schools in the proposed conference average 675 students