It's common knowledge that identity theft is a growing problem. But who would have expected it to rear its ugly head in high school sports.

Yet here we are with some of the newer co-ops and consolidations bearing names that provide nary a hint of their location.

Try Central Prairie on for size. Likewise, Dakota Prairie, the North Star Bearcats and the Northern Lights. One of those appellations narrows things down to one of two states. The other two merely cut the possibilites down to anywhere in the northern hemisphere.

Central Prairie is a new basketball co-op involving Gackle, Streeter, Medina and Cleveland. Dakota Prairie is a consolidated school district with its high school in Petersburg. The North Star Bearcats represent football, volleyball, track and golf co-ops centered in Cando. The Northern Lights are a Rolla-Rolette-Wolford-St. John track amalgamation.

But why should Ihave to tell you that? Must education boards tag their schools with names that are completely anonymous?

It would make just as much sense to call your merged school district Gopher Gulch, Coyote Junction, Grasslands, OpenPlains or Homestead.

As school district consolidations become more and more common across the state, let's hope this trend of attaching interchangeable names grinds to a halt.

At least you can tell where to look on a map for the location of schools like Central Cass (Casselton), Griggs CountyCentral(Cooperstown), Divide County(Crosby), North Sargent(Gwinner), Northern Cass(Hunter),Richland(Colfax), Sargent Central (Forman) and Turtle Mountain (Belcourt).

Hyphen-laden names like Wing-Tuttle-Pettibone-Robinson in boys basketball and Washburn-Wilton-Center-Stanton in baseball are no prize, but at least they carry an identity. Likewise, that favorite from the 2004 state Class Bbaseball tournament: Steele-Dawson-Napoleon-Wing-Tuttle.

Granted, no one wants to deal with a name like Binford-Glenfield-Sutton-McHenry, now known as Midkota. Nor does Tower City-Buffalo-Mapleton-Fingal, aka Maple Valley, exactly sing.

My solution, which I've never been able to sell to my Tribune colleagues, is the one-hyphen rule. Pick the two largest towns in a conglomerate and that's the name of your school. Thus, Midkota becomes Binford-Glenfield and Maple Valley turns into Mapleton-Tower City. Voila, you now know where both schools are located without digging out a North Dakota High School Activities Association or state education department publication.

The single-hyphen rule also cuts those coal train-long names down to size. WTPRbecomes a manageable Wing-Tuttle and WWCSshrinks to Washburn-Wilton.

I still prefer the good old days of single-name schools. There's no mystery lurking in names like Killdeer, Bottineau, Beulah, Carrington, DickinsonTrinity or Rugby.

The fact of the matter, though, is there's no going back. Schools are going to have to learn to live together or die alone. So more co-ops and consolidated school districts are on the horizon.

However, that doesn't give a school board license to go with names like Flatland, Bison Hollow, Mosquite Flats or Amber Waves.

(Steve Thomas is a Tribune sportswriter.)