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Wednesday evening, the Meyersdale school board unanimously approved a potential move for the school's sports programs to join the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference starting in the 2023-2024 school year.
The Red Raiders may be the first of many to make the move, and the ripple effect could wind up being felt in Blair County and throughout District 6 and District 5.
"I am aware of the Laurel Highlands having contact with multiple school districts in District 6 and have had preliminary discussions about a possible expansion of the conference," District 6 chairman and Penn Cambria superintendent Bill Marshall said. "The Laurel Highlands has had communications with multiple schools from other conferences and currently those discussions are revolving around what a large 20-plus team league would look like, and what schedules and regions would look like with the intent of developing a conference that would be more regional and focus on geographic regions but at the same time provide those league schools the opportunity to have competitions at or near the same classification level."
The Laurel Highlands is currently made up of 12 teams in football -- Bedford, Bishop Guilfoyle, Bishop McCort, Central, Central Cambria, Chestnut Ridge, Forest Hills, Johnstown, Penn Cambria, Richland, Somerset and Westmont Hilltop -- and a 13th, Bishop Carroll, in all sports other than football, though the Huskies are now in a co-op with Bishop McCort.
Nothing is set in stone, but a developing super conference would like to have something together in March. The talks began to address the issue of a pair of area conferences struggling to keep enough teams to put together a consistent schedule.
"This was based on conversations about basketball and co-ops and District 6 doesn't want to see any of our schools struggling to get a schedule together," Marshall said. "This is a proactive measure to see if we can do something with some of the smaller schools. The WestPAC for all intents and purposes is gone. Everyone is leaving. The Mountain (League) can only get six games for football."
Currently, the Mountain League consists of Bald Eagle Area, Bellefonte, Clearfield, Huntingdon, Penns Valley, Philipsburg-Osceola and Tyrone in football and Hollidaysburg in all other sports.
Athletic directors contacted by the Mirror from some of those Mountain League schools declined to comment at this time on any possible LHAC expansion.
"At this time when more schools are co-oping in sports and leagues are in transition, the member schools of the LHAC wanted to extend an opportunity for area schools to join the LHAC to help everyone fill their needs," LHAC chairman and Somerset athletic director Scott Close said. "The possibility of creating different rivalries to an already strong league would be beneficial for all."
According to a report by the Somerset Daily American, Close said there is an expansion committee with a member from Bedford, Bishop Carroll, Penn Cambria, Richland and Somerset on it and schools that may join the proposed super conference will likely need to get approval from their school boards this month.
As the District 6 chairman, Marshall stressed the importance of teams not being left out on an "island" as an independent school and being forced to travel long distances to fill out a schedule.
"The biggest thing I hear across District 6 and District 5 is that all the conferences don't want to see schools left on islands," Marshall said. "You don't want to see a school that is without a conference or a league, because they are more or less an independent, and they are struggling to fill their schedule for their student athletes, and District 6 is all about competitions and getting our student athletes the chance to compete as many times as possible locally. We don't want our teams having to travel great distance and out of state to fill their schedules."
Providing this opportunity would be the priority of a LHAC expansion.
"Everyone is taking their time," Marshall said. "They are analyzing opportunities for geographic regions and competitions of like-classifications, but no decisions will be made until every member school, meaning current Laurel Highlands schools and schools that may be interested into coming into the new Laurel Highlands conference have a chance to examine and evaluate all of that information."
A team like Bedford would not have to travel to Somerset County and play Meyersdale, as the schools would be in different regions.
"You would have four separate regions," Marshall said. "The beauty of this, outside of football, would be if there was a Laurel Highlands North, East, South and West. You could end the basketball season and go into a four-team Laurel Highlands basketball championship with those four regional champions."
Many of the schools involved have agreed on the possible layout of the conference in most sports, but football is still a work in progress.
"We are looking at all possibilities, and everyone is digesting information that's being shared among all the schools," Marshall said. "At some point, those schools that have expressed an interest will have to let the Laurel Highlands know if they would like to be considered to be admitted to the Laurel Highlands or would rather just stay where they are at."
One possible solution to issues with the football schedule could be a rivalry week opportunity in the first week of the season that would allow teams in the LHAC to play a traditional rival from outside the conference.
"Any contact with any potential schools was only to gauge interest," Marshall said. "It was not to gauge, 'are you in or out?' It was simply who might be interested, and what would this look like? That's the phase we are in now."
Marshall said being a member of a conference also assists teams impacted by a co-op.
"The other thing that conferences can do is they help address when schools are forced to enter into co-ops," Marshall said. "Generally, our member schools wait until the last minute if they have to go into a co-op, because it's purely based on the number of student athletes participating. Being part of a league or conference is beneficial in that the league or conference is able to establish protocols in order to fill schedules for schools that have entered into co-ops."