Photo by Noah Clooten
With the upcoming school year rapidly approaching, it’s set to be the last year of the Four Winds/Minnewaukan sports co-op.
Four Winds Community School announced the news on Facebook on July 10. It came after the annual board meeting held on July 2.
Currently, athletes from Minnewaukan Public School combine with Four Winds to form the Indians’ basketball, volleyball and cross country teams. That will end after one more complete school year.
It is still unannounced where Minnewaukan kids will play after the co-op ends.
In football, Four Winds and Minnewaukan were already separated. Minnewaukan football players typically join the Devils Lake Firebirds, while Four Winds has its own team. Athletes from both Four Winds and Minnewaukan also join Devils Lake for baseball, softball, wrestling and hockey. For track and field, they have a fairly new co-op with the New Rockford-Sheyenne Rockets.
Both the Four Winds and FW/M teams are known as the Indians, with the same logos and uniform patterns — unlike other co-ops that sometimes change their team name from the standalone school’s (for example, Leeds and Maddock are the Lions and Bobcats, respectively, but they combine to form the Benson County Wildcats).
Four Winds and Minnewaukan began their co-op in 2010. Minnewaukan had previously been in a co-op with Leeds.
The decision to end the co-op of roughly a decade and a half came, per the Facebook announcement, due to “student enrollment numbers, participation rates, and financial sustainability.”
The school continued, “Our primary goal remains to maintain a high standard of extracurricular activities, while ensuring these opportunities are feasible and beneficial for all of our students.”
Enrollment numbers from the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction show that the Four Winds high school student population has been very gradually decreasing since reaching a peak of 198 in 2020-21. In 2024-25, it was 159.
Minnewaukan’s high school enrollment varies more from year to year. In 2021-22, it was 25, then shot up to 78 the next year. It fell to 64 in 2023-24 before rising slightly to 71 in 2024-25.
The FW/M boys’ basketball team this year featured 20 players on the varsity roster. Rick Smith’s squad won two Class B state titles during the co-op, and appeared in the championship game three additional times. Through two years of competing in Class A, the Indians are yet to make a state tournament, but the boys’ team has a combined record of 33-15.
They’ll have one more run this winter as the FW/M Indians.
In its statement, Four Winds Community School assured the public that Minnewaukan students will continue to have opportunities to participate in activities.
“We recognize the importance of these programs for our students, and we remain dedicated to providing a path forward that supports their continued growth, both academically and in extracurricular activities,” the school wrote. “Thank you for your understanding and continued support as we navigate this process. We will keep coaches informed, and as additional information becomes available, we will ensure they share it with players and their families.”
The Four Winds football team is coming off one of its best seasons in program history. It hosted a playoff game for the first time ever last fall. The 2025 season is set to open against Larimore on Aug. 22 in Fort Totten. The volleyball season starts shortly thereafter, with the Four Winds Invitational scheduled for Aug. 30.
The basketball schedule is already set, too, with the boys’ season opener set for Dec. 13 at home against Oak Grove. The girls start even earlier with the Lake Region Invitational in Devils Lake from Dec. 4-6.
