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Higbee to join CLAA for 2021-22 school year

Posted 6/21/20

Higbee will go west for its conference games beginning in the fall of 2021. The Tigers will become the 12th member of the Carroll-Livingston Activity Association next year.

The CLAA …

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Higbee to join CLAA for 2021-22 school year

Posted

Higbee will go west for its conference games beginning in the fall of 2021. The Tigers will become the 12th member of the Carroll-Livingston Activity Association next year.

The CLAA superintendents voted on January 29 to add Braymer to the league for the 2020-21 season and extended an invitation for Higbee to join in 2021. On June 13, the Higbee school board voted to accept.

“I think the decision to switch conferences was made looking at the long-term benefits,” said Higbee A.D. Jamey Fuemmeler.

The Cooper County Activities Association was down to just four members with the Prairie Home and Bunceton co-op. The CCAA has been unable to add any new members.

“We were worried down the road in five to 10 years there might not be a CCAA conference and we might not have the opportunity to join another conference,” Fuemmeler explained.

“This decision was made for the students many years down the road. We will have some long bus trips, but it is not much different than what we are used to now.”

Keytesville and Brunswick are closer to Higbee than any of the CCAA schools were, but the average trip to the CLAA members is 73 miles, up from an average trip of 55 miles in the CCAA. Breckenridge and Southwest are the only trips of over 100 miles.

Some of the teams at Higbee will see little change from their current schedules. The junior high basketball team will begin to participate in a CLAA tournament and the track teams will travel to the CLAA conference meet. The CLAA does not have fall baseball, so that schedule will stay the same.

Softball and spring baseball will have a few games to add to the schedule, but several of the CLAA schools co-op. Braymer and Breckenridge share baseball and softball teams as do Hale/Bosworth, Ketesville/Brunswick, and Southwest/Tina-Avalon.

The biggest change to the schedule comes in basketball, where Hale/Bosworth is the only co-op. Keytesville and Brunswick are already on the schedule, but the other nine teams will need to be added. The Tigers will also drop the Brashear Tournament, which takes place the same week as the CLAA conference tournament.

Conference president Jana Holcer also told the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribue that more games will be scheduled on Mondays whenever possible. Several of the schools in the CLAA have gone to a four-day school week, and with the conference expansion will come longer bus trips along with the long school days. 

The Constitution-Tribune also reported in January that league representatives are open to continued expansion and a possible two-division alignment, which could reduce travel.  

The 12 schools in the CLAA for the ‘21-22 year had an average 2020 preliminary district enrollment of 52 students in grades 9-12, with Higbee having 55. The smallest high school at 15 students is Bosworth, which co-ops with Hale in nearly every sport. The largest is newcomer Braymer, with a high school enrollment of 83 followed by Hardin-Central at 72.

Carroll-Livingston Activity Association members for 2021-22

Bosworth 

Braymer

Breckenridge 

Brunswick 

Hale  

Hardin-Central 

Higbee

Keytesville 

Norborne 

Northwestern  

Southwest

Tina-Avalon

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