Two Schools, Two Different States, Same Mess
By Dave Schmidt – www.theseniorreports.com
Two Schools –
The facts are almost the same for each school – school leaves a conference to join a new conference, joins the new conference, leaves the new conference (before even participating in a conference event) to join another conference (or hope to join it). These two schools at the current time find themselves as independents and also have burnt some bridges in this process.
If your school is looking at changing conferences, please be sure to make sure you are absolutely sure and that there are no other options. We suggest you go thru an in-depth process to evaluate your current situation and the new conference or conferences you are considering. We have the (free to use) HS Athletic Conference Barometer – www.theseniorreports.com/barometer.htm - that can start you in this process.
You need to avoid the mess that takes place at these two schools. You will see in both situations that school boards and district community members are not happy with the many changes that this can cause. The student-athlete suffers the most, Vermilion athletes will now be playing at a school that is an independent and no chance to gain all-conference honors.
Not being in a conference has many set backs, including; long road trips, losing long time rivals and a drop in gate receipts in both football and basketball. How much time this will take out of your daily schedule will amaze if you have to deal with a situation like this.
One key mistake both schools made in this process, not making a public statement to let everyone know of the situation. Instead of controlling the news, the news ended up controlling them. Answering the questions when asked is way better then “no comment”.
We ask you to take the time to read the information below and learn from what two schools learned the “hard way”.
Below you will find story articles on this process for both schools –
it will be worth your time to read many of the articles below.
***updated
CLICK HERE - Upstate Eight Conference extends invites
updated
CLICK HERE - West Chicago Fumbles MSC Invitation
updated
CLICK HERE - West Chicago on the move
updated
JUST IN
Statement from Metro Suburban Conference
Glenbard South AD John Treiber
I think this is a great decision for the betterment of
the students, staff, and community of
CLICK HERE - West Chicago School Board To Vote On Conference Change
From Board Agenda the Board of Education authorizes its Administration to apply for admission of the School District into the Metro Suburban Conference and, upon acceptance into the Metro Suburban Conference, withdraw the School District from the DuPage Valley Conference and authorize the School District’s Administration to take all actions reasonable and necessary to effectuate such withdrawal, including but not limited to the submission of a notice of withdrawal from the DuPage Valley Conference.
VERMILION
******UPDATED 11-22-12
CLICK HERE - Vermilion pursues return to WSC
CLICK
HERE - Vermilion trying to decide if it should join a conference or stay
independent
updated
Vermilion: League affiliation a tough decision School mulling a return to WSC, independent status CLICK HERE - http://www.fandy.com/article/1708731
THE RESULT
So what do you think after reading and considering all that has gone on? It could be the key to the future of your school and your conference. I hope you don’t have the attitude “this will never happen to us”, because I think if you ask these two schools and the conferences they have been associated with in the past most likely they said the same thing.