[Barry Bonzack]

Originally Posted by Rich Kressly

Good luck with the merger, no matter what happens.
I can tell you that you won't be rookies again though. We have two teams in Eastern PA working on a merger. Since they are still working out the details, I won't post numbers publicly. However, this is the official response from the head of regional operations we received in Philly about this very scenario:

"Any two teams combining together can choose to use only one of their team numbers. However, that number belongs to the school that formed that team, and while they can then add the other school to it, should any thing happen and they want to separate at some time then the number stays with the first school.
For example:
Team 1234 from Myschool, and team 5678 from Technical Academy can combine to form either:
Team 1234 from Myschool and Technical Academy, or
Team 5678 from Technical Academy and Myschool.

However, if they want to form a whole new team then they can ask for a new number. We would look for a 'retired' number that has not been used for say 5 years. In no case are they a rookie team, and we would not give them a rookie number."

Please have your leadership contact FIRST directly about this as soon as your decision is made.

I read once that if a team retires its number for a year that number loses veteran status. In this case, if both the teams were to form one team under 5678, what would happen if they seperated in the future? would 1234 be able to retrieve their old number? if they took on a new/used (retired) number like 123, if they were to separate in the future would both schools return to their old numbers?