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By Barbara Brown
North Branch teams will face some new competitors next year as the school district leaves the Rum River Conference and takes on membership in the North Suburban Conference.
The district has been in talks for several years with conference and state officials to join the NSC.
During the past few months, those talks have been increasingly fruitful and last Thursday Becky Leuer, activities director for the district, requested approval from the board to join the conference.
The request was approved unanimously after no discussion from the board members during the May 13 meeting.
In March, three Rum River Conference schools agreed to leave the conference to form a new conference in the west.
Big Lake, Princeton and St. Michael-Albertville left a major gap in the population numbers of North Branch and Chisago Lakes high schools and the other teams left in the conference.
North Branch and Chisago Lakes have about 850 athletes each. Princeton has 843, St. Michael has 689 and Big Lake has 570.
The next closest athlete population in the Rum River Conference is Milaca with 497. The smallest athlete population in a Rum River Conference school is Zimmerman with 197.
ìIf we stayed in the Rum River Conference it would leave Chisago Lakes and North Branch with 800 kids and the rest of the schools with 400 kids and thatís not really fair,î Leuer said to the board.
Four previous North Suburban Conference schools also left that conference to form a new conference, opening four slots in the NSC.
Joining the North Suburban Conference will offer North Branch the chance to compete against schools more comparable in size, Leuer told the board.
Leuer also pointed out that the district cold expect to save a little money by joining NSC.
She said the average mileage for round trip travel to and from competitions would drop 2 miles per trip from the RRC meets to NSC meets.
The NSC could be an eight- or 10-team conference next year depending on how switching around several teams finalizes.
Should the conference be a 10-team organization, it would include North Branch, Chisago Lakes, Irondale, Robbinsdale Cooper, Spring Lake Park, St. Louis Park, St. Francis, Totino Grace, Benilde-St. Margaret and Fridley.
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