At its meeting this Tuesday, July 20, the Rugby School Board will discuss the matter of a potential hockey co-op agreement with Bottineau School.

Currently, Bottineau’s district offers high school-sanctioned boys hockey while Rugby does not.

In the spring of 2009, two families in the Rugby district approached the school board about a possible co-op with Bottineau for boys hockey.

However, the board denied the request do to a number of reasons, including the fact there was already a high school-level boys program offered through the Rugby Amateur Hockey Association. Other concerns were the district’s costs to enter a co-op and also whether there would potentially be the need to add another girls sport to remain Title IX compliant a federal law which requires equal opportunity for both boys and girls to take part in extracurricular athletics.

This time the request will be coming from the RAHA, which is expecting too low of participation numbers to field its own hockey team next season.