The Ayer-Shirley Regional School Committee recently learned a few more details about the high school football team’s transition. If you’re not familiar with the schools, it’s the Ayer-Shirley Panthers.
On Jan. 21st, the school committee met and voted to approve entering into a high school football co-op with Littleton, with Ayer-Shirley as the host community. This vote was taken ahead of approaching the school sports league.
After some talks in the past, Littleton reached out to the Ayer-Shirley Regional School District because the district was no longer able to sustain a program, the athletic director said.
While he said Ayer-Shirley Regional High School could continue on its own, the district has seen rosters of 27-34 players over the past seven years. The co-op would allow up to 15 players from Littleton each year. He spoke of potentially having a program with 40-45 students, including JV and a middle school program (down the road).
During that meeting, he noted Littleton would continue to register their own students and pay for equipment; costs such as referees and buses could be split. Most home games would be held at the high school in Ayer.
The Ayer-Shirley school district follows a similar approach for its hockey program.
On March 17th, the school committee met again. A student-athlete spoke, then the athletic director answered a few informal questions from one of the committee members.
According to this meeting, the new team will include students from Ayer-Shirley, Littleton and Bromfield (Harvard). As the districts work on the new uniform, the athletic director reported a strong turnout of students at weight-lifting sessions compared to in the past.
He also shared that the new team will play in Division 8 and next year’s Thanksgiving Eve game will be played at Lunenburg.