Four wrestlers in varied weight classes is not enough for a team.

With four returning lettermen and similarly low numbers coming through middle school, Youngsville High School’s wrestling program might be in jeopardy.

A follow-up meeting in the community indicated a much higher level of interest, but, the district is considering options now, just in case.

“We had a meeting on June 8,” Coordinator of District-wide Athletics Rick Gignac said at Monday night’s meeting of the personnel, athletics, and co-curricular activities committee. “We had five Youngsville parents present and both Youngsville coaches.”

“The big item was projected numbers,” he said.

The four returning lettermen are not particularly close in weight classes.

“It’s difficult for those kids to practice with each other,” Gignac said.

The subsequent meeting resulted in about 30 students in grades seven through 12 signing up.

“Who knows what that’s going to be come November,” Gignac said.

The group at the initial meeting agreed that a cooperative agreement with Warren Area High School would be the most logical. District officials are ready to move to that agreement if needed.

A decision is not required immediately.

“The coaches are going to offer summer wrestling,” Gignac said.

The coaches, principals, and Gignac will meet again in September

“The goal in September is to see where they are with those numbers,” Gignac said. “At that point in time, we want to set a date, I’m thinking somewhere in mid-October… either go forward with Youngsville program or go with a Warren co-op.”

Board member Joe Colosimo asked if there were a hard deadline of Sept. 15 for announcing a co-op for the winter season.

“It can be later if there’s no change in classification,” Gignac said.

A cooperative agreement with Warren Area High School or Eisenhower High School would not change the classification of either program.

Earlier in the meeting, the committee and administration talked about its procedures for dropping a sport.

“When we started doing the cuts, the concept was we had to clip money and schools would have to make tough choices and start cutting opportunities,” Superintendent Amy Stewart said. “They’re not making them. They’re continuing to offer everything.”

That leads to the board having to make decisions on the fly as programs fall short of the required numbers.

“Regarding the broader concept of cooperative agreements that may come to fruition because of declining numbers, if we wait until that shortfall number is realized, we will be forced into co-oping with Warren at most every turn because the other schools’ populations may change,” committee member Jack Werner said. “By waiting for that shortfall to occur rather than being proactive, we are going to tie our hands and take away that flexibility to create programs where we’d like them.”

There is also the possibility that a sudden shortfall would leave students at a school with no option to participate in that sport for a year or two.

“Maybe it would be impossible… maybe Warren would be right at the edge and we would bump them,” Werner said.