How will Somerset County population decline affect scholastic sports by 2050?

Editor's Note: This is the third part in an occasional series looking at how the Somerset County region plans to prepare for a predicted 8,000 population drop by 2050.

Several Somerset County schools are already in cooperative agreements with neighboring programs for scholastic sports. It has proven beneficial over the years.

Projected population changes through the year 2050 released by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania in partnership with the Pennsylvania State Data Center, show rural areas will face a 5.8% population decline. Somerset County, in particular, may lose more than 8,000 members of its population by 2050.

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With population numbers declining, it will impact scholastic sports and create new challenges when fielding rosters.

Meyersdale Area recently formulated co-ops with Berlin Brothersvalley for soccer and cross country. Meyersdale goes to Berlin for soccer while the Mountaineers join the Red Raiders for cross county. Turkeyfoot Valley and Salisbury-Elk Lick also co-op with Meyersdale for football.

Athletic director Craig Gindlesperger has seen the positives of those co-ops throughout his tenure.

"Right now, we are looking to get Salisbury, Turkeyfoot, Meyersdale and Rockwood on board for a co-op for girls wrestling, so we have a team to compete in all the weight classes," Gindlesperger said. "As time goes on, it's inevitable consolidation is always something that is discussed. You can start doing that now through different sports cooperatives and trying to build stronger programs."

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Without co-ops, Meyersdale would struggle to field teams. With the population decline, it could take something more than co-ops to establish competitive rosters in Meyersdale.

"As time goes on and you are losing competitions as a result of co-ops, maybe a bigger conference can be had because you're going to be able to compete, drawing from more schools to formulate one quality team through consolidation," Gindlesperger said. "Co-ops are definitely assets to our programs. The last at least six years, our quarterback has been a Salisbury kid. It gives kids opportunities that they otherwise might not have had at their smaller schools. If you're going to stay competitive, you have to find ways to be creative and consolidate, at least athletically, to be competitive."

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Somerset Area High School has been fortunate it has not been forced to co-op for athletics.

That does not mean things will not change in the near future.

"We've had enough personnel to fill our rosters, but I can foresee in the near future with the declining population and students not necessarily participating in athletics as much as they have in the past or playing multiple sports, that will create a problem," Somerset athletic director Scott Close said. "Obviously, at that point, schools are going to have to look to join forces to create athletic teams. What makes the most sense is joining forces to create good educational experiences as well.

"I'm not sure if Somerset County will be able to continue to have all the individual school districts that we have. It might be time, whether it's voluntary or involuntary, where they look at combining some school districts together."

With many schools in Somerset already in co-ops, it could become a challenge for Somerset High School to join an already established cooperative with neighboring programs.

"Our choices would be limited," Close said. "Even schools that are co-oping don't have enough athletes to go 5-on-5 in basketball practice for example. In girls soccer, we will not have a junior varsity squad this year. We won't have enough kids to have an intrasquad scrimmage 11-on-11. That's the start of your program declining when you can't have a solid practice. I am seeing that across the board in many school districts, not just Somerset County, but reaching schools in the Laurel Highlands."

Adam Ripple is the Daily American sports editor. He can be reached at 814-444-5926. Follow him on X @ARipple_DAsport. Follow Daily American Sports on Facebook and @dailyamericanmedia on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Decreasing population in Somerset County will create sports challenges