Jeanette Wolfberg is reporting for The Columbia Paper that the Hudson and Ichabod Crane school districts have agreed to merge their varsity swim teams for the 2022-23 season. This will be Ichabod’s first time participating in high school interscholastic swimming in quite a few years, ICC’s new Athletic Director Dave Ames said last month. Even when Ichabod had a swim team, it never had a pool of its own, so it used the pool at Hudson High School. According to Ames, Hudson proposed the merger, because it anticipated low enrollment for varsity swimming this year. The printed agreement gives the reason for merging as “it is in the best interest of both parties to merge,” for the sake of “economy and efficiency.” Ames said for economic reasons, the teams would not be able to survive were it not for the merger. Other districts are doing the same — the New Lebanon Central School District has merged with the Berlin schools in Rensselaer County. Practices take place at Berlin schools. And the Taconic Hills Central School District's boys and girls soccer teams have joined with Hawthorne Valley. According to the Hudson-Ichabod swimming team agreement, the coaching staff from each school will jointly determine which students are eligible to participate. The district athletic directors will jointly determine the schedule in coordination with each other. As in the past, the joint swimming team will be co-ed. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.