Rivals LeRoy-Ostrander, Lyle/Austin Pacelli to form football co-op

Apr. 28—LeROY — LeRoy-Ostrander and Lyle/Austin Pacelli plan to form a co-op to play high school football starting with the 2024 season.

Both teams play their postseason games out of Section 1. Due to a lack of numbers, Lyle/Pacelli did not field a varsity team in 2023 and was not going to in 2024 either until this merger.

"I think it's a good thing and we're excited to make it happen," Lyle activities director Bill Smith said.

Trevor Carrier, who guided the Cardinals to a state championship in 2021, is in his fifth year as the head football coach at LeRoy-Ostrander. He is also the school's activities director.

"It's a wonderful thing for us," Carrier said of the merger.

The move will give more players an opportunity to play, but not necessarily at the varsity level. Due to low numbers, LeRoy-Ostrander has not fielded a junior varsity team for the past five seasons.

"Now we get a JV and we don't have to force some of these kids into (varsity) game action," Carrier said.

The two-year co-op between the two programs is for varsity and junior varsity. The junior high programs will remain separate for now.

All varsity and JV practices and games will be held in LeRoy. The team uniforms will be the red and white from LeRoy-Ostrander and the team nickname will remain the Cardinals.

Smith is hoping in the future that an occasional team activity, including games, might be held in Lyle. Austin is about 30 minutes from LeRoy.

"We've had some feedback that we might be able to," he said. "It's kind of the unknown yet of what's going to happen down the road. It's stuff we need to iron out yet."

Carrier is expecting 14 to 18 Lyle/Pacelli players in grades 9-12 to join the LeRoy-Ostrander program for the 2024 season. L-O is expected to have between 26 and 28 players in grades 9-12 in 2024.

LeRoy-Ostrander and Lyle/Pacelli will remain in 9-Player for the regular season and the playoffs and the team will remain in Section 1, which has produced some of the state's best teams in recent years.

Over the past 16 seasons, a 9-Player team from Section 1 has won eight state championships and has been the state runner-up four times.

LeRoy-Ostrander won a 9-Player state championship in 2021 when it featured just 17 varsity players.

"That's unheard of," Carrier said.

To determine a class size in Minnesota for co-ops, 100 percent of the students in grades 9-12 (not on free or reduced lunch) are counted from the biggest school in the co-op. After that the other school(s) is counted at 50 percent of its size.

"Most of the schools we were playing with were double us (in enrollment)," Carrier said. "It definitely gives us more numbers."

L-O currently has 68 students, which made the Cardinals the smallest school in Section 1 during the 2023 season. Lyle has 64 students and Pacelli has 59. That would give the co-op a count of 129 students for the 2024 football season and the maximum to stay in 9-Payer is 150.

Kingsland, which won the Section 1 title in 2023 and was the state runner-up, was able to play in 9-Player despite having an enrollment of about 155.

"That's a big, gigantic difference between competition in the amount of numbers you have," Carrier said. "That's why these kinds of things are good for Lyle/Pacelli and us. We'll work together and it should be a great thing for the kids."

The co-op isn't official yet. Lyle and Pacelli have to fill out a dissolution of their current co-op in football. That will have to be approved by the school board of each school. The next Lyle School Board meeting will not be until the third week in May.

The move will then have to be approved by the Minnesota State High School League, but that is unlikely to be a problem.

The co-op has been approved by the other activities directors in Section 1, Class 9-Player.

"LeRoy's approached us before but we thought we might be able to make it on our own," Smith said. "But we just feel like we're giving our boys the opportunity to play some football at the level they deserve to be at."

Carrier and his staff will continue to run the program. Patrick Murphy, a junior varsity coach at Lyle/Pacelli last year, will join the LeRoy-Ostrander coaching staff in 2024.

Lyle/Pacelli has never earned a state berth since it started its football co-op during the 1997 season. L-O is coming off an 8-2 season in 2023 and graduates just two seniors. Smith believes the merger will help L-O and L/P to be a force during the section playoffs.

"It gives our boys and team a chance to get in there and get a taste of what it's like," he said. "I think it's going to be a good thing and Trevor's all fired up for it. Hopefully we can make it work."