Carlton, Wrenshall to field joint softball team

School board members for the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts voted on Monday to move ahead with adding softball as a cooperative spring sport. If approved by the Minnesota State High School League, the partnership would begin immediately and be effective for at least this season.

Both schools have lagging participation rates that would have put junior high students on varsity rosters, often before they are ready, the application to the MSHSL said.

The two districts earlier this year agreed to combine track programs as well. The cooperative, which runs under the Raptors nickname, has had a handful of years sharing football and cross country.

Wrenshall figures it will save enough money to buy new uniforms by moving games from rented fields at Braun Park in Cloquet to the fields at Chub Lake Park.

Pine Knot News sportswriter Kerry Rodd did some asking around and found out that Carlton and Wrenshall combined all of their spring sports, including baseball, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The unofficial nickname for at least the girls softball team was the “Bird Dogs,” Rodd said, adding that the softball team was coached by Cary Zahn and Randy Hedlund back then. Rodd is a former coach for the Cloquet softball team, among others.

Katie Moench, an assistant activities director at Carlton, said she filed the application Tuesday with the MSHSL after the board votes. The cooperative softball team would be coached by Anna George, who works for the Wrenshall district, and Carlton’s returning coach, Brent Pokornowski.