ROCHELLE — At its monthly meeting Monday, the Rochelle Township High School Board of Education unanimously approved a two-year boys and girls tennis cooperative pilot program with Oregon High School. OHS athletes will now compete on RTHS's tennis teams. The program will not increase costs, and the RTHS tennis teams will remain competing in their current conference and the smallest division of the IHSA state competition.
OHS currently has no boys or girls tennis program of its own and does not participate in any cooperatives, RTHS District Superintendent Jason Harper said. Harper said Oregon athletes will travel to RTHS to participate in practices and matches. The Oregon School District will be "pitching in" with travel costs and will handle eligibility for its athletes, Harper said.
Harper said in recent years, some RTHS sports programs have been "losing out" on being able to field full varsity and junior varsity teams.
"Through our conversations, we've been adamant that we're willing to try this to see what happens in this situation," Harper said. "We've been clear that at this point we're not looking for any more cooperatives or things of that nature. This one happens to work right now. This is a two-year trial.”
The tennis teams will be known as the RTHS tennis teams and will not carry any of OHS's branding.
