Reps add Mancelona to hockey co-op

By JAMES COOK
jcook@record-eagle.com

September 06, 2008 12:00 am

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TRAVERSE CITY -- The Bay Reps are expanding their turf.

The co-op hockey team added Mancelona to its net this week after the Michigan High School Athletic Association approved the request.

"Mancelona was not able to offer it and had kids who wanted to play," said St. Francis athletic director Tom Hardy. "It seemed like a fit for the Reps.

"With the other new co-op, every small school in northern Michigan that has said they want hockey is involved in a team. That's really what the spirit of our co-op is about."

Former Reps coach Rex Luxton, who announced his resignation Friday, said the team could get four to five players from Mancelona this season who could contribute.

The Reps -- a co-op of St. Francis, Kalkaska, Elk Rapids and Suttons Bay before adding Ironmen athletes into the mix -- have 11 seniors among 15 returners to this year's team.

The five-team co-op's combined enrollment should be in the 1,900 range, Hardy said. The Reps were already in hockey's Division 1.