Englewood and St. Mary’s Academy to co-op in softball; team moves to 4A

On the eve of the softball season, one newly-announced co-op has changed the structure of the classification alignment.

Englewood and St. Mary’s Academy applied for a co-op in softball on Tuesday. The CHSAA office granted the request, which means the two schools will combine to have one program. Players from both schools will play for one program, under the Englewood banner.

The co-op also means the two schools will combine enrollment. Separately, Englewood (602) and St. Mary’s Academy (254) were each going to be 3A programs. But their combined enrollment of 856 places them above the 4A threshold of 626 students.

As a result, the new Englewood team has been moved from Class 3A to Class 4A, and will need to qualify for the postseason in 4A. As they were already in the 3A/4A Colorado 7 League, Englewood’s league affiliation has not changed.

“We’re losing a team in 3A — a competitive team — and they move to a competitive 4A classification,” said Bud Ozzello, the CHSAA assistant commissioner in charge of softball. “But with the new postseason qualification procedures in place through RPI, it is an easy change to make.”

The 4A teams playing in the Colorado 7 will remain with one automatic qualifier to the postseason. The 3A Colorado 7 teams do not have an automatic qualifier, unless they win the league outright.

St. Mary’s Academy has not had a softball program in the past, though its players have played for Englewood under the state law that allows participants to play for other schools if their school doesn’t offer a program.

However, Englewood did not have enough players on its own to field a team, according to CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann, who oversees co-ops. And so the two schools decided to officially form a co-op to ensure the program would have enough players.

Though co-ops are usually approved by the CHSAA office at this point, it is atypical for a team to change classifications this late, Borgmann said.

“It does happen at times, though it is more generally with smaller schools. Sometimes, they just don’t have enough kids,” he said. “The whole point of co-ops is to allow kids to participate, and to maintain programs. This is a perfect example of that.”