Playing As Cyclones Like 'Playing As Family'

The term “Cyclone Strong” is a term among Clearwater-Orchard students used to show the support of the schools.

However, a hot topic around Clearwater and Orchard since 2009 has been the inter-local agreement of the two schools and how to most efficiently continue to work together to provide the best experience for the students as possible. That has caused much talk among the respective boards about which direction is best for the future of the schools and, consequently, the Cyclone teams.

While the adults figure that part out, the students continue to play with their life-long teammates and friends.

“We play as a family. We’ve grown up playing as a family,” said senior Kinzly Macke, an Orchard resident.

Macke is a leader for the 5-2 Lady Cyclones. She currently leads the team in scoring, rebounds and steals and has helped Clearwater-Orchard to a five-game winning streak.

Macke and fellow senior Grady Bellingtier, a Clearwater resident and member of the boys basketball team that recently took home their first win of the year, agreed that, while much of the discussion is divided among the towns, the noise doesn’t ever cause division within the teams. 

“All the students get along well, everyone gets along,” said Bellingtier. “The players don’t look at it as two schools; we just look at it as one big team.”

The players often hear about the discussions going on between the two towns, and many do have their own opinions. However, they simply enjoy being with their friends.

“You hear about it a lot in the school board meetings and stuff like that, but not really in the students,” Bellingtier explained. “All the students really just like being together.”

With enrollment in many small towns dwindling, much like Clearwater and Orchard, cooperations and consolidations have been necessary for both the better academic well-being of students and the experience of the athletic teams. As Macke pointed out, if the two schools weren’t together, Orchard wouldn’t be able to field a girls basketball team as just two girls would be out for basketball. 

Being able to field competitive teams has been one of many benefits the players have seen from the two schools working together.

“I think it really helped us all in the long run,” said Bellingtier. “We made a lot of new friendships.”

​“I’m glad we play together,” said Macke. “We have more friends now. I feel like before (the inter-local agreement) we were restricted to them being rivals to us and we were not supposed to like each other. Now, it’s not that way.”