| More prep realignment to come? |
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| Written by By CHAYSE HELD, Sentinel Sports Writer |
| Saturday, 19 November 2011 02:06 |
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Not even halfway through its first year of existence, rumors of the Northern Buckeye Conference losing league members are already bouncing around the area. The ‘domino effect’ of other conferences in the area losing schools could trigger a change to the NBC, but all those involved with the league say the NBC is staying as is, at least for now. “Certainly any kind of a discussion that happens about this is going to make our eyes pop open and our eyebrows go up,” NBC commissioner Larry Jones said. “It’s sad that after all these things have been settled that there’s more uncertainty. But if that’s going to happen that’s the nature of the beast now.” The NBC is in its first year of competition after the Suburban Lakes League folded and was re-branded as the NBC with the addition of Rossford and Fostoria. Fellow NBC schools Eastwood, Elmwood, Genoa, Lake, Otsego and Woodmore were all members of the SLL at the time the change was made. At the heart of the NBC rumors is the possibility of the two smallest schools in the league — Elmwood and Woodmore — leaving the NBC to join the Midland Athletic League, even though both schools applied and were denied membership to the MAL less than three years ago. “All the things you are hearing are rumors. We are not leaving,” Elmwood superintendent Tony Borton said. “We have never had a meeting, internally or externally, that I am aware of. “We’re hearing the rumors, too, because my phone is ringing off the hook from community members that are upset. They’re not true,” Borton continued. “If the NBC would lose a team or two and some bigger schools would come in, down the road I may have to make a different decision. But right now, we are not looking. We are not interested in leaving.” The reason for the latest rumblings of Elmwood and Woodmore joining the MAL stem from the possibility of the North Central Conference folding, which in turn could affect the MAL and the possibility of some of its members leaving that league to form a new conference with the leftover schools from the NCC. Representatives from MAL schools Carey, Mohawk and Seneca East attended a meeting recently with schools currently in the NCC about the possible formation of a new conference. However, nothing official has been set, according to MAL commissioner Mark King. “There is some discussion over the possibility of a few member schools exploring the possibility of leaving the MAL,” King said, adding that he could not comment on which specific schools were discussing leaving the MAL. The MAL has scheduled a league meeting for Dec. 8 to discuss the issue further and take possible action, if necessary. “The schools that are exploring their options have a meeting prior to Dec. 8 that is supposed to lay more groundwork on whether they’re actually going to pursue leaving the Midland Athletic League or not,” King said. “We believe at that point in time we should have a better idea about exactly what is going on officially or what is going to go on. “If it becomes clear that they’ve explored their options and they’re not leaving, then there’s no sense to move on any further,” King added. “But if it does come that we have action that has to be taken then that’s going to be our first meeting to start addressing where we go from there as a league.” King added that the MAL has not had any official talks with any other schools, specifically Elmwood, about possibly joining the league. If the changes were to take place and Elmwood chooses to leaves the NBC before the end of this school year, the school is required by the NBC constitution to compete in the league for two more school years. In that case the changes would not go into effect until the 2014-15 season. As for Elmwood, both Borton and high school principal Tom Bentley strongly denied that Elmwood was even thinking of leaving the NBC, but at the same time did not rule out that could be a possibility in the future. “We had made an application to the MAL a couple of years ago and they weren’t interested in us,” Bentley said. “So we’re pretty happy where we are. We’re in with a number of former SLL schools and a couple of new schools. We’ve won two league championships (boys cross country and girls golf) this fall ... so what do we have to not be happy about at this point? “It’s hard to even fathom making a decision to leave something that you haven’t even really had the opportunity to be a part of for an entire year,” Bentley continued. “I think the NBC is a solid entity right now. It’s a stable league right now in this area. We’re happy to be a part of that.” |
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