St. Cloud High Schools’ Co-Op Team Now Has a Name

(KNSI) – The new co-op teams made up of student-athletes from St. Cloud Tech and St. Cloud Apollo now have a name.

A press release from St. Cloud Area School District 742 says a committee of coaches, parents, and students recommended branding the co-op teams as St. Cloud Crush to recognize the history and importance of granite in the St. Cloud area. The name was approved at the Wednesday meeting of the Board of Education regarding the renewal of the district’s membership in the Minnesota State High School League and Wednesday night’s school board meeting.

District 742 Vice Chair Al Dahlgren says the move is about getting enough students to participate and field competitive teams.

“We aren’t looking to cut costs doing this as part of what we’re trying to do. We want to be able to field at each school, a varsity, junior varsity, and a ninth-grade team. And we haven’t had enough kids to fill all three levels of those teams.”

Dahlgren talked about why participation is down.

“I think the biggest and most significant change that we’ve had in our district over the course of the last 15 years is the change in demographics, and I don’t just mean skin color or Somali. We’ve had a huge increase in poverty levels in this district.”

He says some families can’t afford to play sports when they’re younger or don’t have, and some newer families to the district don’t participate in sports.

The St. Cloud Crush co-op teams for the upcoming school year will combine girls and boys tennis, girls softball, boys baseball, and girls basketball.

The team colors will be orange and blue, combining the orange of the Tech Tigers and the blue of the Apollo Eagles.

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