GISH cancles varsity girls basketball season due to lack of numbers

[nja13]

Pretty stunning at a Class A school with 2,600 students.
Personally, I blame goddam club volleyball.
Also, I read elswhere that they have 40-some girls out for wrestling, which obviously has a significant impact.

Grand Island Senior High cancels 2024-25 varsity girls basketball schedule

GRAND ISLAND - After careful consideration and months of conversations, Grand Island Senior High (GISH) has ca...

kgfw.com

GRAND ISLAND — After careful consideration and months of conversations, Grand Island Senior High (GISH) has canceled the 2024-25 Varsity schedule for Girls Basketball.

At this time, GISH does not have any Junior or Senior student athletes going out for the sport. Looking ahead to the future of the program, the GISH Girls Basketball Coaching Staff, Activities Office, and District Administration worked together to brainstorm solutions for supporting the program. Discussions were had with Middle School and High School parents and student athletes throughout the process to ensure the commitment to the program remained at the forefront.

Ultimately, the decision was made to invest in developing younger players through the typical process of Reserves and Freshman levels rather than field a Varsity team filled with Freshman and Sophomores. Keeping student experience and safety at the forefront, the GISH Girls Basketball program believes hitting the “pause” button on the Varsity season will be what’s best for all involved.

Coach Kathryn Langrehr and her Coaching Staff will remain with the program as the “paused” Varsity season is intended for the 2024-25 season.

With the immediate news being unfortunate GISH is approaching the situation with an enhanced commitment in mind.

“We’re committed to this program. And it’s because of our commitment to cultivating girls basketball at Grand Island — and our state — that we are taking this difficult but innovative approach.” Chris Ladwig, GISH Activities Director, said, “We want to provide the best student athlete experience we possibly can for our kids. Right now, we don’t have the numbers to roster an upper-class Varsity team. So, our focus will be to continue developing our Freshman and Sophomore players and put together a “full court press” towards re-building our youth programs in our community. We stand behind Coach Langrehr and her vision for this program — she has our full support.”

Looking at the larger landscape, the shrinking numbers in high school girls basketball programs is a hurdle many schools are facing.

“Unfortunately, we’re seeing a trend across the state.” Matt Fisher, GIPS Superintendent, said, “Numerous high schools across all classes are facing challenges with fielding teams for Girls Basketball. As difficult as the decision is to not offer a varsity schedule for a year, we agree with our Activities Department and Girls Basketball Coaching staff that we need to be more proactive in building long term solutions for the program. In this case, that means taking a step-back so we may develop our student athletes the right way. We remain committed to girls basketball and to student experiences.”

What’s next for the GISH Girls Basketball program?

GISH plans to offer a schedule for Freshman and Reserves for the 2024-25 season.

Coach Kathryn Langrehr will continue her role as the GISH GBB Head Coach and will move forward with her vision of making girls basketball accessible for all students Elementary through High School.

The GISH GBB Coaching Staff will be at full capacity to accommodate spending more time investing in your youth and Middle School programs along with developing our Freshman and Sophomore players.

“The Islanders aren’t going anywhere.” Ladwig said, “For us, it starts by developing our young high school players and recalibrating our youth programs.”

 

[SoCal_Corn]

Maybe they should allow the tranny boys to play

Would that give them enough?

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

Interesting, coming off of year 3 of what we have all been repeatedly told is the era of unprecedented popularity of women's basketball.

 

[nja13]

Maybe they should allow the tranny boys to play

Would that give them enough?

Maybe in certain states, but I don't think in Nebraska.

I know you're joking, but I read up on the transgender policy when the NSAA adopted it 10 years ago or so (I remember thinking at the time 'why are we even talking about this'? Little did I know it would be thee hot culture topic a decade later). Nebraska actually has a decently rigorus standard for boys to complete in girls sport. You can't just decalre you're a girl and compete against them the next day as appears to be the case in some other states.

 

[whoboppin]

Is GISH common Western Nebraskan tongue? I have never heard of that before until today.

 

[nja13]

Is GISH common Western Nebraskan tongue? I have never heard of that before until today.

Yes. It is the common abbreviation used for Grand Island Senior High. (as opposed to GICC or GINW)

 

[Goskers07]

Is GISH common Western Nebraskan tongue? I have never heard of that before until today.

Yes. See also, pussies.

 

[SoCal_Corn]

Maybe in certain states, but I don't think in Nebraska.

I know you're joking, but I read up on the transgender policy when the NSAA adopted it 10 years ago or so (I remember thinking at the time 'why are we even talking about this'? Little did I know it would be thee hot culture topic a decade later). Nebraska actually has a decently rigorus standard for boys to complete in girls sport. You can't just decalre you're a girl and compete against them the next day as appears to be the case in some other states.

God Bless Nebraska.

 

[BushAK]

I have a hard time wrapping my head around this. Are Nebraska high schools not in charge of their own basketball scheduling? Did GISH have to pay a forfeit fee for their conference games?

For context two years ago my high school team didn't win a game because we were freshman and sophomores. For whatever reason we just didn't have a strong upper class. My high school has around 220 kids. After that year we adjusted our schedule to account for the gaps. We still played our conference games, and got rocked, but the rest of the schedule was against smaller schools where we could compete.

 

[nja13]

I have a hard time wrapping my head around this. Are Nebraska high schools not in charge of their own basketball scheduling? Did GISH have to pay a forfeit fee for their conference games?

For context two years ago my high school team didn't win a game because we were freshman and sophomores. For whatever reason we just didn't have a strong upper class. My high school has around 220 kids. After that year we adjusted our schedule to account for the gaps. We still played our conference games, and got rocked, but the rest of the schedule was against smaller schools were we could compete.

Yes, schools arrange their own schedules.

I suppose they could have scheduled down. But reworking a good portion of their schedule for
what I am sure they are hoping is a temporary situation would be an enormus pain in the butt.

Apparently, they thought they could get just as much development (and likely much more success) playing just their underclass schedule.

 

[BushAK]

Yes, schools arrange their own schedules.

I suppose they could have scheduled down. But reworking a good portion of their schedule for
what I am sure they are hoping is a temporary situation would be an enormus pain in the butt.

Apparently, they thought they could get just as much development (and likely much more success) playing just their underclass schedule.

Some of my difficulties is just not knowing the Nebraska landscape. In Alaska there are 4 divisions. Regardless of boys or girls, the top 5 teams of one division can probably beat or at least compete with almost all of the teams of the next division up. Girls basketball is also terrible in Alaska outside of like 10 teams statewide.