As some of you may know, the NDHSAA has approved the 3-class system for volleyball, beginning in the fall of the 2025-2026 school year.
At a recent Heart River coop committee meeting, committee members from the coop schools of Billings County, Belfield, and South Heart mutually and unanimously decided to split the volleyball coop at the conclusion of the 2023 volleyball season.
Being that Belfield is the host of the cooperative agreement in volleyball, South Heart, having received both School Board and NDHSAA Board approval, has been released from the coop in volleyball. This is the cleanest and most effective method as the coop between Billings County and Belfield will remain intact and will now only require a request for a name change for the existing coop.
We believe this decision is in the best interest of our student-athletes, as it will provide those students more opportunities for participation in volleyball. We will begin the split with our elementary grades in the spring of 2024, followed by the 7-12 split in the fall of 2024.
Thank you for your support of athletics in our schools.
Sincerely,
Danielle O’Brien, Billings County Public Schools
Daren Kurle, Belfield Public School
Calvin Dean, South Heart Public School