Three Rivers extends invite to PHS, Hall, SBA
Editor's note: This is an update on the story that was published in Thursday's BCR.
The Princeton Tigers, the Hall Red Devils and the St. Bede Bruins all have a new home.
The three Bureau County schools have been extended an invitation to join the Three Rivers Athletic Conference, beginning with the 2013-14 school year for all sports, PHS superintendent Kirk Haring told the BCR Thursday afternoon.
"Obviously, we're very excited. It's nice to have someone want you," said Haring, who received notification from TRAC president Scott Vance of Morrison.
Haring said Orion, Rockridge and Riverdale were also approved to join the conference at Thursday's TRAC meeting in Rock Falls. The six new members will join Kewanee to form the South Division with the remaining eight TRAC members, including Bureau Valley, forming the North. Original proposals showed Bureau Valley being placed in the South, but that was a clerical error, BV athletic director Eric Lawson said.
St. Bede athletic director Tom McGunnigal said principal Michelle Mershon had received notice from the Three River about the Academy's invitation. Hall officials were waiting to receive their official notice before commenting.
Haring said he will discuss the invitation with PHS coaches during Friday's workshop and take it to the school board for approval on Jan. 25.
McGunnigal said it is his understanding all parties had until Feb. 1 to accept the invitation.
PHS, along with Rockridge, Orion and Sherrard, will remain as a member of West Central Conference for football next year until making the move in 2013. Hall will continue to play in the Tri-County for another year with the Tigers and Bruins continuing in the three-team NCIC league for all other sports in 2012-13.
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There has been plenty of talk about league expansion in the Three Rivers Athletic Conference (the TRAC) since September, a proposal which was tabled from its last meeting in December. Conference president Scott Vance, principal of Morrison High School, believes the officials from the nine member schools will be ready for action when they meet Thursday in Rock Falls.
“I don’t want to say Thursday is definitely the day, but the principals are expecting to vote on Thursday,” Vance told the Rock Island Argus/Moline Dispatch. “It’s been going on too long, I think everyone is ready for this to be over.”
There are six interested parties in the TRAC, including two with ties to the conference already: Hall, which has been approved for membership in the Big Rivers, the TRAC’s sister football conference; and St. Bede, a longtime member of the Big Rivers, but previously voted down by the TRAC.
Princeton, which remains in the three-school NCIC with St. Bede and IVC, along with its fellow West Central Conference football rivals Orion, Rockridge and Sherrard, would also like to join the TRAC party.
There are three division proposals for expansion on the table — two based geographically and one on school size.
The TRAC can do one of three things when it meets Thursday.
No. 1 - Vote to take on new members by an even number — 2, 4 or 6 ( they must expand in pairs to maintain balance for football schedule).
No. 2 - Do absolutely nothing at all and maintain the status quo.
No. 3 - Or it could table expansion again, which seems unlikely.
Expansion of any sort will take an approval of two-thirds vote (six) of the nine league members — Amboy, Bureau Valley, Erie, Fulton, Kewanee, Morrison, Newman, Prophetstown and Riverdale.
Kewanee, which joined the TRAC in 2010 from the NCIC, has publicly stated it is happy with the “status quo” in the conference. Other schools have voiced concerns over travel and bringing in bigger schools.
Longtime Sterling Newman athletic director and football coach Mike Papoccia said he would be afraid to guess how the vote will go down Thursday.
“This is going to run the whole gamut Thursday,” said the 34-year Comets coach. “I think we could let all schools in, where we’d have 14-15 schools, or not expand at all. I have no idea where it will go.”
Personally, Papoccia said he definitely would like to add at least two more teams, if not more, “because it gives us more security for the conference.”
While not everyone in the conference will be in favor of expansion, Papoccia says “somebody is going to have to take one for the good of the team.” By that, he means to do what’s best for the conference overall.
“It’s not going to be perfect for everybody. I don’t think it will be perfect for anybody,” he said. “Somebody will have to play bigger schools, travel more than they want to or play teams you’d rather not be playing every year because they’re not on your side of the conference.”
Bureau Valley athletic director/acting principal Eric Lawson said there’s been a lot of ideas pitched on expansion and some TRAC members have expressed concerns about how it would affect their school directly. He can the understand the schools who believe there are no issues currently in the conference, so why make a change at this point.
“For a lot of schools, the No. 1 concern they have is the need to look out for themselves. Certainly, we want to do that, too, but want to take in consideration for what is best to solidify and stabilize the conference for years to come,” Lawson said.
While declining to say to how Bureau Valley will vote Thursday, Lawson has previously told the BCR he has promoted the advantages having Bureau County neighbors like Princeton, Hall and St. Bede to his school board since BV has already established friendly rivalries with them and they have a close proximity to the Manlius school.
Lawson said it will all come down to how the alignment proposals play out. Of the three proposals, the north-south alignment which calls for all schools south of Interstate-80, including Kewanee and the six applicants in the south, being the one which seems to be the most favorable on the table.
“That’s what I’m hearing, too,” Lawson said.
The north-south alignment would allow some schools, like an Amboy, not desiring to be paired with the much larger Princeton to stay in the north division with schools closer its size.
While the north-south seems to be a more desirable proposal, the east-west scenario would cut down on travel for half the league. Both sides in the east-west would have an average trip of 35 miles in division play. By going north-south, the north side travel would dip to an average of 27 miles while the south side would bump up to 49 miles, when western schools like Orion, Rockridge and Sherrard are thrown into the mix.
Papoccia noted the Big Rivers previously had two divisions when it was developed in 1999 and everything worked well, providing “great crossovers and getting different teams every other year. If we can get two divisions, it opens up some neat things we can do.”
Expansion could provide opportunities for a conference tournaments in sports like wrestling and basketball and maintain the existing conference meets for cross country and track.
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