Medina and Roy-Hart merge for girls soccer

Hampered by low numbers the past couple of years Medina will now be joining up with Roy-Hart for girls varsity and JV soccer beginning this fall.

The merged Roy-Hart/Medina team will compete in the Niagara-Orleans League and will be a Class A team for Section VI competition.

The merger plan, which is for three years, looks to bolster the rosters for both schools.

For Medina, which has not had a JV team for several years and finished the final few games of last fall’s varsity season undermanned with less than 11 healthy players, it will provide an opportunity for its players to play on full varsity and JV teams.

For Roy-Hart, which returns only 10 players with varsity experience having graduated 8, including 7 starters, it will give the team depth and allows for a full JV team.

“We want to rebuild, to regroup,” said Medina Athletic Director Eric Valley. “We had the option to either keep struggling to field a full varsity team or to join up with Roy-Hart so we can have our players playing at the level they should be.”

Valley notes that some 15 students in grades 9-11 have indicated their interest to play for the new merged team.

“It will be a positive for both schools,” said Roy-Hart Athletic Director John Grzymala. “It gives the Medina kids a chance to compete on a full team. It will also give us some good overall depth for our program. I totally agree with Eric that you don’t want to have to move players up to the varsity before they are ready. This will allow them to play at the right level. The big thing is we want the kids to have the opportunity to play varsity soccer,”

Both schools are also looking to develop modified level teams.

This will now give the N-O League two merged teams for girls soccer with the other being Barker/Lyndonville.