In a meeting last week, league officials decided on a two-year agreement to allow Coupeville to remain in the conference and play a full schedule for all sports except football.

Coupeville is only half the size in enrollment as the next smallest school in the eight-team Cascade Conference, and Coupeville school officials and parents are concerned about the safety of its athletes in football.

Coupeville athletic director Lori Stolee said last month “there is no way” the Wolves would compete again against the larger schools in football in the conference after Coupeville finished the 2011 season with half of its 32-man squad on the injured list. If need be, she said, Coupeville would leave the league and become independent.

The Cascade Conference acknowledged Coupeville’s concerns and amended its football schedule to accommodate the Wolves.

Coupeville will meet the other Cascade Conference 1A schools, South Whidbey and King’s, and the smaller 2A schools, Sultan and Granite Falls, next year and will fill in the remainder of its football schedule with two games with Northwest Conference 1A schools (Nooksack Valley and Lynden Christian) and two others to be determined, Stolee said.

The games with South Whidbey and King’s will determine seeding for the 1A playoffs.

Stolee said the meeting with the Cascade Conference “went really well,” and said the “next big job” is finding a football coach. Jay Silver resigned after two years at the end of last season.

The Cascade Conference will re-exam the agreement in two years when the state does its next school enrollment count.