MORGAN — Cedar Mountain has agreed to end its pairing with Comfrey for all sports but football for the 2018-2019 school year.

Cedar Mountain first paired with Comfrey for football back in 1996, boys’ basketball (2000-2001), softball (2002), baseball (2003), volleyball (2006) and girls’ basketball (2006-2007).

After next season, the football pairing will also come to an end.

Cedar Mountain Superintendent Robert Tews was the CM/C football coach back in 1996 when the programs first joined and is sad to see the pairing come to an end.

“We’ve had Comfrey kids at our house and we have good friends there,” Tews said. “From that respect, I’m very sad. I know this is something that Comfrey has said was going to come at some time, it just came quicker than we had anticipated. That kind of threw some kinks in our plans because our coaches were already planning for summer leagues and things like that, but in the end I think we did basically what they wanted.”

On April 10, Cedar Mountain High School received a request from the Comfrey District to end its pairing agreement for all sports except football for the 2018-2019 school year.

The Minnesota State High School League rules require a year notice be given unless all schools involved in the pairing agreement agree to terminate the agreement. In addition to the MSHSL rules, the Cedar Mountain and Comfrey Pairing Committees in October agreed to give each other a one year notice, which in a letter, Comfrey acknowledged Cedar Mountain’s right to reject the request.

After much consideration, the Cedar Mountain School Board approved the request at a special school board meeting on May 1, provided that all football games be played in Morgan this upcoming season. The approval also requires that Comfrey pay the cost of transportation for Comfrey athletes to Morgan in addition to paying a portion of all other football expenses on a per athlete basis.

“At first it was kind of like, ‘no, we’re going to hold you to the pairing’,” Tews said. “But I think as people thought through it — one of our coaches spoke at our board meeting and she said, ‘It may be the seniors who really benefit by us staying one more year, but the freshmen, sophomores and juniors won’t because they won’t be in the program they’re going to be in — these are our Comfrey kids.’ So I was proud of our coaches — they always thought about the pairing in terms of their kids. It was never the Comfrey kids or the Cedar Mountain kids, it was always what’s best for their kids. So I think that’s some of the advice that our board used when they formulated their answer.”

Based on the action by the Cedar Mountain School Board, Cedar Mountain will be alone for volleyball and both boys’ and girls’ basketball next school year. In football, the team will remain Cedar Mountain/Comfrey for another season, and a boys’ and girls’ track pairing is to be determined.

All other sports will remain unchanged.

It was a tough decision to make for Cedar Mountain, but Tews is looking to move forward and had several nice things to say about the Comfrey parents and athletes.

“The biggest thing I would say is that I feel good about how our kids worked together,” Tews said. “I think that we were a good match and like I said, I’m very sad to see this end because I’ve had the Comfrey kids at our house, I’ve been in the houses of the Comfrey kids down there. We go there for homecoming and they treated us like royalty. I would have nothing bad ever to say about their kids and their parents and how they treated us as a coach and team. So it was a good pairing, I also know that things change and I have a lot of confidence in our kids going forward.”