When Central Catholic High School athletic director Mike Kopp approached Salisbury athletic directory Monica Deeb about the possibility of a cooperative sponsorship because of the Vikings' low turnout for the field hockey program, it seemed as a win-win situation for both sides.

The Vikings, who didn't have enough interested players for the upcoming fall season, sought a way for players to continue playing the sport. The Falcons, meanwhile, weren't able to suit up enough players for a junior varsity and varsity squad in 2014 with Salisbury players alone.

The addition of seven Central Catholic players (Molly Carbone, Megan Chlebove, Miranda DeFiore, Jillian Gardne, Katie Kiskeravage, Emily Kiefer, and Jesse Ondrovic) allows for both schools to benefit from the two-year agreement.

"They weren't going to have enough kids to have any program," Deeb said. "In our initial signups, we thought we would be in the 18-20 range, so we might not have had JV. It could work out for the both of us.

"I think our numbers are in the low 30s. It should allow us to be able to do JV and varsity. I'm excited for it. I think it's great for our program. We're going to help their program. You can't even tell we have kids from another team."

Upon completion of the two-year cooperative sponsorship, the sides will be eligible to renew the agreement for another two seasons.

"It's a two-year commitment, and it automatically renews unless the schools say end it," Deeb said.

In order for a cooperative sponsorship to even be an option, one of the interested schools must have an enrollment below 300 for the gender of that sport. For example, if a school is interested in creating a cooperative sponsorship in football, one of the programs must have a male enrollment of under 300.

In this case, both Salisbury (222) and Central Catholic (282) met this requirement.

"It has to get approved by the district and submitted to the state," Deeb said. "It's pretty much a rubber stamp approval as long as you meet the criteria."

Additionally, the Falcons will stay in the District 11 Class AA classification based on a combined enrollment number between the two schools. Half of Salisbury's female enrollment and the full Central Catholic female enrollment equaled the final number eligible for Class AA teams.

"The formula is you take half of our female enrollment, 9 thru 11, that we reported to the state last October," Deeb said. "Add it to all of their girls' enrollment. They had 282 girls. We had 222 girls. If you take half of ours, 111, plus [Central Catholic's] 282, that puts you at 393. That is the last number you can have to be in AA, which is what we are."

It wouldn't have been as simple of jumping a class either if the number didn't equate to 393 or lower.

"Had we had one more, we wouldn't have been able to do it because we would have jumped classifications," Deeb said. "If we were going to co-op and jump classifications, we would have had to include the enrollment before last October. Every odd year you report your enrollment to the state. We would have had to wait until the next cycle."

It's the first time in Deeb's career at Salisbury that any of the Falcons' sport programs have joined in a cooperative sponsorship.

"It's a new concept, but it has been favorably received by Salisbury and obviously by Central Catholic," Deeb said. "I've only heard positive things."

For first-year head coach Meredith Makoul, the addition of a number of new players will only improve competition over the course of the season. The camaraderie between the players is already evident.

"People were nervous to see what would happen," Makoul said. "It's amazing. The girls act like they've known each other for years. Everyone fits right in. You can't even tell we have two teams playing for us."