FOXBURG — A-C Valley High School's struggling football program might have been dealt another blow.

The Oil City and Cranberry school boards approved a cooperative sports agreement for high school football Monday. If approved by District 9 and the PIAA, this co-op would be in effect for the next two seasons.

Cranberry High had been involved in a football co-op with A-C Valley since 1993.

"We're sad to see them go," A-C Valley athletic director Anita Orton said. "We've had a tremendous working relationship with that school district and their kids."

A-C Valley has lost 40 consecutive games, is on a streak of 10 successive losing seasons and is on its fifth head coach in the past decade.

Eight of the 31 players on the Falcons' 2009 football roster came from Cranberry.

Falcons head football coach Chris McNany said two of those Cranberry players are seniors this year and the other six would be returning starters in the fall.

"It's a big concern, losing that depth," McNany said. "But we're on a good path here. We've increased our numbers (of A-C Valley players) and I expect that to continue.

"We don't talk about wins and losses. We talk to kids about the camaraderie and brotherhood that football is and about being part of something during their high school careers."

Orton said the losing skid is a nonfactor in Cranberry's decision to switch co-ops.

"It's a travel issue for them," Orton said. "That's a 42-mile round-trip from Cranberry High School to our place. It's a 14-mile round-trip to Oil City for them.

"The Cranberry football players weren't getting back home until 7:30 at night after practices. That's pretty rough."

Oil City also offered Cranberry a no-cost participation for football. The Cranberry district had been paying A-C Valley for its student participation, based on the number of sessions each Cranberry player attended.

"Including games and practices, we have 65 football sessions during the regular season. ... It's a complicated formula, but we were receiving funding from them," Orton said.

The PIAA's new enrollment cycle that takes effect in the 2010-11 school year will bump Oil City's football program from Class AA to AAA. Oil City's new co-op plan, which includes Venango Catholic along with Cranberry, wouldn't change that Triple-A classification.

Without Cranberry's participation, A-C Valley will drop from Class AA to Class A in terms of enrollment numbers. But because the PIAA already completed its enrollment cycle, the Falcons will be considered a Class AA football program.

"I don't know if the state will take that into consideration when it rules on this or not," Orton said. "I don't know what's going to happen there."

Oil City, Cranberry and Venango Catholic missed the deadline for applying for a co-op by a month. To take effect next school year, the formal application was to be submitted by November. Orton said the application wasn't filed until December.

The District 9 Athletic Committee still can vote to approve the co-op at its next meeting in February. The PIAA might elect to approve it at its March meeting.

"If the district votes it down, the schools can still file an appeal to the state," Orton said. "Ultimately, it's the PIAA's decision."

The depth of Cranberry's participation in A-C Valley football has varied over the years.

"We've had seasons where Cranberry kids have comprised half our team," Orton said. "Their participation numbers have been hard to predict sometimes. If we didn't have them last year, we still would have had 23 players and that's enough to play.

"With a new coach and a new attitude here, we're hopeful of getting more of our kids interested in playing football next year," she added.

McNany started for the 1995 A-C Valley team that won the district championship. His coaching staff consists of A-C Valley graduates as well.

"Most of our athletes play golf and basketball now because those are the athletic programs that are successful here," McNany said. "Kids tend to feed the successful programs and abandon the struggling ones.

"My nephew is a senior here now. He was 4 years old when I played. He doesn't remember any kind of football success at A-C Valley."

Orton said the A-C Valley school district hasn't discussed whether to pursue a co-op with another school.

McNany said he's in favor of anything "that will keep the program going."