Joining forces can be difficult.

Hesitant at first, members of the only combined Carlton-Wrenshall sports team told Carlton school board members Monday that the two teams started out the 2018 fall season feeling like two teams, but ended it united in friendship and competition.

“In the beginning, I was not excited about joining with Carlton,” wrote Wrenshall junior Alexis Schmidt in a letter to the board. “The rivalry between our two schools made it really hard, but now that we’ve gotten to know each other, we aren’t a team, we’re a family.”

Carlton Junior Spencer Hoeffling sa...