It’s been 20 years since a Falls wrestler participated in a match at the high school level. Next year, that could be a different story.

The Falls School Board Monday agreed to allow a group of its members to begin discussions about the possibility of entering into a high-school level wrestling cooperative with North Woods High School in Cook.

“The superintendent of the Cook area has invited me to go down and start talking to him,” said board member Mike Holden, who has been a long-time outspoken advocate for wrestling. “Now’s the time to do it.”

Any decision will have to wait until next season, however, because a cooperative agreement has to be in place 30 days prior to the start of the season, according to Kevin Grover, Falls athletic director.

“If we’re thinking of entertaining wrestling, let’s get the discussion going, let’s keep it timely,” Grover said.

The idea of the cooperative with North Woods surfaced last month when Pete Benedix, who coaches the local youth Mighty Mustangs wrestling team, brought the suggestion to the board.

Benedix said a growing concern among the local wrestling athletes and their parents is that the children are competing from 4 years old into eighth grade and must stop their involvement in the sport without continuation of a wrestling program.

“We’re very successful in the youth program,” he said. “I want to give the kids the opportunity I had to go beyond (wrestling) in the eighth grade.”

Benedix, a 1991 FHS graduate, was part of the school’s wrestling program before 1992, when the program, along with boys swimming, was cut from the Falls’ athletic programs in order to equalize the number of boys and girls sports offered. Both teams were later reinstated after parents groups raised necessary funds to operate the sports through the following season.

However, in 1993, wrestling’s weak participation prompted the school board to eliminate the sport which helped bring more balance to the school’s sports programs, which had been dominated by boys.

Board members Monday asked if Title IX, which requires schools that receive federal funds to provide girls and women with equal opportunity to compete in sports, would be impacted should they choose to co-op with North Woods.

“My understanding is it used to be if you had six boys sports, you needed six girls sports,” Grover said of Title IX. “It looks at percentages (of boys and girls athletes) now.”

Should the board choose to co-op or establish its own high-school level wrestling program, Grover said the percentage of boys participating in sports has room to increase without having to add a girls sport. But, he added, the percentage is figured out annually and could change as enrollment fluctuates.

On the same note, Grover said if the board moves forward with North Woods, it needs to consider the possibility of future requests for other sports and schools to co-op.

“If you do it for one, you have to do it for another,” he said. “We would need to keep that in mind...If the board is against a co-op of any sort, there is no sense looking at wrestling.”

Board member Willi Kostiuk asked what the downside to co-oping would be.

Falls Superintendent Nordy Nelson said cost and distance between co-oping schools are factors that could have a negative effect.

Benedix said he is aware of the logistics involved with establishing a co-op, but vowed he would be persistent with the board until a program was formed.

“I feel we need to give that opportunity back to this school and the community,” he said of wrestling. “We’ll build that school spirit back up...We’ll sell the gym out, I guarantee you.”