ECI independent schools face challenges
Conference changes leave schools searching for a
league
---story
courtesy The Star Press of
Southside
athletic director Tom Lyon and
Southside,
Athletes at the three schools are unable to win
conference championships. They can't earn honors for being named
all-conference. And football scheduling can be especially tedious for an
independent school.
Other sports have more flexible calendars, and
independent schools can schedule opponents throughout the season with relative
ease. Opponents have room for a one-game break from conference play at various
points in the season, allowing an independent to fill a schedule. Six days of
the week are also available for scheduling (the IHSAA allows no competition on
Sundays), allowing even more flexibility.
Football schedules are far more rigid, with many
conferences playing a seven-game schedule in weeks 2-8 or 3-9. That means there
are nights when almost every school in the state with a conference affiliation
is playing a conference foe, leaving independent schools desperate to find an
opponent.
Teams also play once a week and almost exclusively
on Fridays, so games can't be sneaked into the middle of the week like in other
sports. Wes-Del and Monroe Central also face the challenge of filling a
football schedule as an independent, though both of those schools have the
benefit of Mid-Eastern Conference affiliation in other sports.
Independent teams sometimes use the Internet to
find other schools looking to fill an open date.
Southside's 2012 season included playing the same
opponent twice (
Current seniors at Southside and
"The real reasons to be in a conference are
for your kids,"
Southside football player McKenzee
Nash remembers being named honorable mention all-conference as a freshman. He
set a goal to be first team all-conference the following year, but never got a
chance to follow through on his pursuit. He's since had discussions with other
athletes at his school about what it would be like if they had a chance at
all-conference honors.
"We've all talked about wishing we were in a
conference. Southside used to be in one of the toughest conferences with
"That would be nice to have," Snyder
said. "Like I could say we were conference champions all four years. But
since they cut it out, it's kind of like one of those things, 'Oh, you don't
really have that anymore.' "
Southside has had discussions about joining the
Hoosier Heritage Conference, the current home of
So far Southside's interaction with the HHC has
been limited to preliminary discussions. The two sides have not advanced to a
formal application stage in the process.
The Rebels' 2013 football schedule will feel
similar to that of an HHC school, though. They'll play five of the conference's
teams, helping some of those schools fill the weeks they once used to play
Rushville and also maintaining a prior agreement with
The scheduling agreements have a risk, too. Should
the Hoosier Heritage Conference find a new full member other than Southside, it
would likely need some of those dates back for its new school, more likely in
2014, the second year of Southside's two-year contracts with the HHC schools.
That would leave Southside left to search to fill those weeks once again.
"Which is a scary proposition, to be empty
five weeks,"
Could Southside land in the NCC?
The North Central Conference, home of Southside's
city rival Central, is also mulling expansion,
Lafayette Jefferson athletic director Mark Preston
said his school, Harrison and McCutcheon have had
discussions about joining the North Central Conference. After the 2013-14
school year, the seven Indianapolis-area schools in
the Hoosier Crossroads Conference will be parting ways with the three
Lafayette-area schools, leaving them in search of a new home.
The North Central Conference and Hoosier Heritage
Conference would be the two most logical fits for Southside,
The Central Indiana Conference might also be a
possibility, he said, but Southside would stretch that league's geography. And
while recent enrollment declines have pushed Southside closer in size to many
CIC schools (
As he attempts to find a conference home for the
Rebels,
"I can't find anybody that will tell me that
Muncie South is closing,"
Like Lyon,
He said he's sent letters of interest to a variety
of conferences hoping to be considered if they're interested in expansion. The list of conferences they've inquired about include the
Central Indiana Conference and Hoosier Heritage Conference, among others. He's
also expressed interest to the North Central Conference, he said.
He says he's sent letters in all directions
inquiring about potential homes for the Patriots. He'd be willing to speak to a
wide variety of conferences, though he said he would be more selective before
officially agreeing to join.
"We're a good school, we're competitive, we
offer all the sports," Lutton said. "And
we'd like to be a part of something. It's not always good being independent.
It's tough."
Lutton still has a week open on his 2013 football schedule,
and he's tried a variety of measures to fill it. The opening is listed on a
message board for
The Patriots are even checking a message board in
Lutton believes geography is
Shenandoah looks for the right fit
Shenandoah athletic director Todd Salkoski also would like to see his school find a
conference, but only one that would be the right fit. The Raiders have been
independent since the White River Athletic Conference folded.
Salkoski said his school is perhaps unique in that it doesn't
celebrate conference championships with the same vigor as other schools.
Banners in the school's gymnasium don't even list any conference championships,
he said. The trophies can be found in trophy cases at Shenandoah, but they're
not celebrated on the banners the way a sectional or regional title is.
"I don't know, it's just something that's a
little bit different," Salkoski said. "You
go in most people's gyms, you can see where they've won county championships or
they've won conference championships, or sectional, regional and so forth. But
in ours, it only has IHSAA championships."
Shenandoah has been declined by the Tri-Eastern
Conference, and has also had talks with the Central Indiana Conference and the
Mid-Eastern Conference, Salkoski said. So far, those
talks haven't led to an invitation to join a league.
In Salkoski's three
years as athletic director, he's seen the majority of his football schedule
change. Six weeks on the schedule have shifted, either because an opponent now
plays the Raiders in a different week or doesn't play Shenandoah at all.
The
The Raiders still are not interested in joining a
league that would require long trips to
"I think there will be some more conference
shuffling,"
Contact prep sports reporter Sam Wilson at
213-5807.