Central gymnastics may be cut for lack of team members

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If more team members cannot be found, gymnastics at Central High School will likely be dropped for next year, Central athletic and activities director Kris Allison said.

The school anticipates only four gymnasts returning next year, Allison said.

“We will try to get the numbers up, but if the interest is not there, it costs a whole lot of money,” Allison said.

One possibility for saving the team would be combining with another school. The Central and Wilmot teams were combined for several years in the 1990s. (Wilmot gymnasts now participate as part of the combined Burlington-Badger-Wilmot team). The school has reached out to “every school within driving distance” for co-op opportunities, but has not heard back yet, Allison said.

The families of the four remaining gymnasts have been notified of the situation in case they wanted to consider open enrolling to another school, Allison said. The open enrollment application period ends this month.

Schedules for next year are set with the assumption of Central fielding a gymnastics team, but they can be cancelled up until next November, Allison said.

No other sports at Central are facing such anticipated drastic shortfall in participants, Allison said.