The Michigan High School Athletic Association will not release its enrollment numbers for the 2016-17 school year until the end of March, but the Wolverine Conference already knows its figures.

According to those figures, the league had six schools show increased enrollment over the last year being led by Otsego, which gained 27 students.

Plainwell saw the biggest drop with a loss of 16 students.

The difference between the largest school, which is Sturgis with 932 students, and its smallest school, which is Dowagiac with 610 students, increased by seven pupils from 315 to 322.

“Dowagiac has been the smallest school in the Wolverine Conference since we’ve joined the league with the exception of the two years with Berrien Springs and Coloma,” Dowagiac athletic director Brent Nate said. “Our coaches and athletes have done a great job to committing to the overall development of our athletes and athletic programs. We have to strived to continue to improve our programs from the youth programs up to the varsity level and encourage our students to be multi-sport athletes to make up for the disadvantages that we have in terms of enrollment.”

The 610 students reported this year is a decrease of just one pupil from the 2015-16 numbers.

 

WOLVERINE CONFERENCE ENROLLMENT

School                          2016-17             2015-16

Sturgis                                932                   926

Vicksburg                           863                   858

Edwardsburg                    855                   851

Plainwell                            791                   807

Three Rivers                      734                   744

Allegan                               683                   678

Otsego                                679                   652

South Haven                     674                   676

Paw Paw                            672                   653

Dowagiac                           610                 611