DANVILLE – The three-school cooperative and member agreements between the once sports rivaled communities of Danville, Twinfield and Cabot was made complete this past fall in high school boys soccer, and with multiple programs now experiencing success, this bold experiment is giving new opportunities to student athletes, while silencing the doubters.
Last summer Twinfield, Cabot and Danville agreed to enter into a cooperative agreement to combine most of their middle and high school sports into one called Caledonia Central Supervisory Union Athletics (CCSU). Danville athletic director Randy Rathburn was named A.D. for CCSU Athletics in the new agreement that was created to combat dwindling participation numbers for sports in all three communities. Twinfield and Cabot have had cooperatives and member agreements off and on for decades but officially became Twinfield-Cabot Athletics in the fall of 2018. Participation numbers remained erratic despite the cooperative and Twinfield officially dropped their high school baseball program in 2021, sending their student athletes over to Danville for the first time that spring.
Late legendary Danville head coach Paul Remick was unable to field a softball team for the first time in the spring of 2023 after building an elite Bear program that won six Division IV state championships. Danville sent softballers across town to Marshfield for the first time that spring, and the results were undeniable as the Trojan softball program won 10 games, including their first playoff victory in nearly a decade under co-head coaches Christin Martin and Summer Haverick. That success, coupled with the historic floods of that summer that destroyed soccer fields at both Cabot and Marshfield, helped expedite the vision of CCSU Athletics into reality.
Varsity girls soccer head coach Spencer Morse guided CCSU to the program’s first ever division III playoff win in their 2023 inaugural season and hosted their first playoff match in their new division as Caledonia United this past fall. Boys soccer was the last domino to fall this past August to complete the cooperative that will exclude basketball unless participation numbers determine otherwise. Boys varsity soccer head coach Peter Stratman won 100 career matches at Cabot and has continued that success in Marshfield, guiding Twinfield-Cabot to 46 wins in five years, back-to-back Division IV Final Fours, including the programs first Final Four appearance in over 21 years. He paused at building yet another program with the new cooperative over the summer, but his love for soccer ultimately won.
“I love to coach, and I love helping develop positive young people. The experience coaching a new program this past fall exceeded all of my expectations and I had a great time coaching these kids with the help of Jeremy Withers, Jordan Hale, and Darren Celley,” said Stratman.
It was the same results with a new program for Stratman this past season as his newly donned Caledonia United team tied school records with 11 wins, despite being moved up to Division III by the Vermont Principals Association. They also hosted and won their first ever playoff match in a new division and with just two seniors on the roster, they look poised to continue to be a contender under Stratman for years to come.
“This new cooperative is fed by really good people at all three schools. It allowed us to have a junior varsity team this season, and it was so much fun to watch our young players have a chance to compete and develop throughout the year. This group was ready and willing to establish a positive culture to play as one team from day one, and I’m excited to continue to build support from all three communities for this program,” said Stratman.
