Clearwater-Orchard, Ewing Set To Begin First Season In Co-op

With the start of the 2016-2017 school year, new changes are coming to Clearwater-Orchard Cyclone sports. 

That’s because the school decided this summer to enter in to a co-op relationship with Ewing for middle school sports. With the exception of football, who is already in an agreement with Chambers/Wheeler Central for the school year, all middle school sports will compete as one team for the school year.

According to Shelly Mlnarik, Clearwater-Orchard activities director, the teams will be known as the O-C-E Cyclones. Beginning with volleyball this fall, O-C-E will still sport the Cyclones green that Clearwater-Orchard fans have become accustomed to. 

Mlnarik said she expects around six Ewing volleyball players to join the Clearwater-Orchard team this fall. With players coming from multiple school sites, scheduling practices seems like it would be a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, Ewing’s different school schedule helps that situation.

“Their school day gets done earlier than what ours does,” Mlnarik explained. “When they come to Clearwater-Orchard, they’ll just leave right after school and head this way.”

Not all of the practices will be held at a certain site. A majority of the practices will happen in Orchard, but the team will also practice in Clearwater and in Ewing as needed, based on the high school’s schedule.

When the co-op was made, one question was how the schedule would be determined, as schedules for the school year had already been set. Mlnarik explained that the schools decided to use a mix of Ewing’s and Clearwater-Orchard’s schedules. As to where the games would be played, that had to be determined as well.

“We tried to even the games out so every site got the same amount, or close to it,” Mlnarik explained.

Middle school volleyball practices will begin for the newly co-op’d schools on Thursday. Mlnarik believes that the first few days of practice will present some new questions and answers for the team. 

The first C-O-E Cyclones game, according to the Cyclones’ website, will take place in Ewing on Tuesday, August 30 as they take on St. Mary’s.