Belmond-Klemme Players Join Up To Play With Eagle Grove Baseball

For the second straight season, Belmond-Klemme will not be fielding its own baseball team. Instead, they will join up with Wright County neighbor Eagle Grove. Bronco players will suit up and play for the Eagles this summer.

The Superintendent of Belmond-Klemme Schools Dan Frazier says the move is due to a lack of participation numbers. However, Frazier expects the low participation numbers to only be a short term issue.

Eagle Grove AD Richard Thacker said to me in an email response on Wednesday

“A few weeks ago we were approached by the BK administration how had asked several of their neighboring districts if their kids could join for this year due to not having enough to field a team. After consideration, Eagle Grove was the only school willing to accept them. As a result, a coop agreement was filed with the IAHSAA to share for baseball only for 2021. Eight BK students are currently on our roster and will play the 2021 season on the Eagle Grove HS BB team.

Eagle Grove baseball is not/was not at risk due to participation or any other factors, but rather we wanted to help student-athletes from a neighboring district. The Co-op agreement effectively makes BK students, EG students for HS baseball in terms of participation and classification.

As a district, we are excited to have the opportunity to give the young men from BK a chance to play this summer so they don’t have to go 2 consecutive years without HS a baseball program. ”

Both schools opted out of the 2020 season due to high covid-19 numbers in the Wright County area.

(The comments from Dan Frazier are courtesy of Radio Iowa Sports)