I would like to put in my one-and-a-half cents on the biggest high school sports story this month in the Lehigh Valley area. The merger between the \u201cLehigh Valley Conference\u201d and the \u201cMountain Valley\u201d conference to form the new \u201cEastern Pennsylvania Conference\u201d or \u201cEPC 18\u201d for short, is a major accomplishment. I present in today\u2019s blog a few opinions of my own, along with reactions from the new league\u2019s administrators and local sports personalities.<\/p>\n
Here are a few of the highlights of the EPC 18:
\n\u2022 3 divisions for \u201cmost\u201d sports (one division with teams from the old MVC, a 2nd division with Allen, Dieruff, Becahi, Freedom, Liberty and Easton and a 3rd division with the remaining \u201cLVC\u201d teams)
\n\u2022 8 teams qualifying for \u201cmost\u201d sports\u2019 playoffs (3 division winners & next 5 teams w\/best div. records). Seeding for these playoffs will be based solely on best division records (ie, a division winner is not guaranteed one of the top three \u201cseeds\u201d)
\n\u2022 Football is split into 2 divisions (one is the old MVC schools, plus Allen, Dieruff, Becahi) with two \u201ccross-over\u201d games with the other division
\n\u2022 Football will have 2 winners (one from each division); there will be no \u201cconference champion\u201d
\n\u2022 Wrestling with have a \u201cthree-tier\u201d system and teams\u2019 status will be recalculated each year based on the previous year\u2019s success
\n\u2022 Sports with fewer participating schools will have adjusted divisions, playoff schedules and formats<\/p>\n
First a few of the positives.
\nThere is clearly no perfect way to align all the schools and their sports teams together, but the league organizers have been successful in many ways trying to balance the league as much as possible. I am encouraged by some of the non-athletic programs, among them one spearheaded by Nazareth\u2019s Rusty Amato, to be included in the new league. Since the MVC was facing an uncertain future with just six teams potentially entering the 2014 school year, this merger definitely helps those schools maintain a solid sports schedule going forward. And, contrary to some people\u2019s views in the Lehigh Valley area, there are a number of high quality sports programs from the Poconos and it will not be a \u2018cake walk\u2019 to play against all the teams from the former-MVC. I think the Pocono schools that have struggled against the Lehigh Valley teams in the past will benefit and continue to improve by being a member of this conference.<\/p>\n
My biggest concern is that the attendance at high school sporting events–which appears to be declining in some districts in recent years–may suffer. There\u2019s no question a Whitehall\/Becahi football game or a Nazareth\/Easton baseball contest (which will not happen in 2015) would draw more interest than, say Becahi\u2019s football team playing East Stroudsburg-North. For \u201cbig games\u201d or come playoff time, it may be harder for parents and fans to travel from one extreme area\u2014geographically speaking\u2014to attend the event at the opposite end of the conference\u2019s territory. Also, and this pertains mostly to football, you lose the option of playing a school from outside the district during the regular season. Coaches would use this opportunity to travel to a different venue or give players a chance to see a different style of play\u2014something that would help a program that has state playoff aspirations.<\/p>\n
Plus, I don\u2019t see how prior concerns of an \u201cuneven playing field\u201d–justified or not–will be solved solely based on the new league concept. However, with the dawn of the new era and a regenerated feeling of good-will in the sports community, one can hope past issues will not resurface.<\/p>\n
League scheduler and long time sports administrator Mike Schneider told me that he feels the griping over the travel concerns is overrated and I trust he\u2019ll be correct. After all, it is true that many Lehigh Valley schools already play teams from the Poconos as part of their non-conference schedule. I do feel there could be some issues because of the weather. While games scheduled in the southern, slightly warmer regions have a better chance to get played, the games to be played up north are more likely to be postponed, which may force a tougher playing schedule for some teams. Also, many Mountain Valley schools are going until June 25th or later for their school year, which could cause scheduling nightmares for athletic directors. However, the officials in our area have done tremendous work coordinating events around postponements (this past year is an excellent example) and I\u2019m confident they\u2019ll overcome any logistical issues that may arise due to postponements.<\/p>\n
Here are some additional thoughts and reactions about the EPC 18 from local personalities (additional interviews and details are available by viewing our June 5th edition of \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d through Video-on-Demand):<\/p>\n