Martin County to combine athletic programs of Riverside and South Creek

Martin County Schools will consolidate the athletic programs at Riverside and South Creek high schools, effective this fall. The school board passed the motion unanimously on Monday night.

The schools — which are not merging academically, at least not yet — will play as "Martin" and will wear black and silver/gray school colors.

There is some recent precedent for this — East and West Montgomery played under the Montgomery Central name one year before the school itself was built, and teams had to travel from one school to the other from practices and games. Unlike Montgomery Central, there are no current plans for one main school building in the center of the county.

The mascot will be determined at a later date, and the colors might be temporary, as it the Martin County Schools release said that "final colors" would be determined later on.

Riverside's average daily membership through the first month of this year was 440, while South Creek had 230.

"Every child deserves every opportunity and our zip code should not determine the opportunities presented to us," said Dr. Michelle White, the Superintendent of Martin County Schools. "But unfortunately, something that I've noticed is that our South Creek children do not currently receive the same (athletic) opportunities as our Riverside children. ... They do not always have enough children to field a team."

White pointed out that while Riverside made it to the state championship in boys tennis, but South Creek did not have enough players to field a team.

"It's time for Martin County to come together as one team and one family," White said. "By doing this we can offer every child every opportunity."

White said that she reached out to the N.C. High School Athletic Association to see if some programs could be merged and others kept separate, but that the option was either to merge all or none.

White also said that transportation will be provided to and from home schools for games and practices.

The merger also includes all middle school athletics.

A press release stated that "Asim McGill, former Riverside High School football coach and current MCS Director of Student Involvement, will serve as the district athletic director."

The two schools were first formed in 2008 by the consolidation of four Martin County Schools — Jamesville and Williamston formed Riverside, while Roanoke and Bear Grass formed South Creek. Consolidation was fought against. The motion to consolidate those schools passed by a 4-2 vote, but not before there were protests, some reportedly taking place before basketball games.