Grand Island Senior High (GISH) announced this week it’s canceling the 2024-25 varsity season for girls basketball.
GISH is the largest school in Class A, according to the Nebraska School Activities Association.
The school 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, the school wrote in a release. 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.
Jon Dolliver is in charge of basketball at the Nebraska School Activities Association, or NSAA.
“I know it wasn't an easy decision for the Grand Island administration and their school to make that call. And so, you feel for those kids, because you only get so many times in your high school career to play sports and to play games,” Dolliver said.
He said Grand Island’s opponents are now scrambling to find other teams to play.
A press release stated the decision was made to invest in developing younger players through the process of reserves and freshman levels rather than field a varsity team filled with freshmen and sophomores.
Coach Kathryn Langrehr and her staff will remain with the program.
“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,” said Chris Ladwig, GISH Activities Director. “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 in the press release. “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.”
Schools across the state have struggled filling football and girl’s basketball rosters in recent years, according to the NSAA, leading to several cancellations. Omaha Benson High School announced it would forfeit its remaining two football games earlier this week. Lincoln High School decided not to play the second half of a lopsided football game against Millard South last weekend.
In the 2022-23 girls basketball season, Omaha Bryan High School didn't play a varsity schedule either. This year, Bryan is combining with Omaha Buena Vista High School to field a varsity girl's basketball squad.
The landscape of high school sports has changed in the last decade, Dolliver said.
"I think some of that has to do with club sports," he said. "We see kids specializing a lot more where they're playing certain sports and not other sports."