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Conference want ad: Members needed'You can bet the family heirloom there’s something to be said about a realignment of some area athletic conferences. sWhy else would athletic directors and principals from several area schools be sitting in on such meetings?But don’t put any money down on Amherst and North Ridgeviile, two Lakeland Conference schools, joining a realigned Buckeye Conference that would feature two six-team divisions.And don’t bet that a proposed Lorain County Class AAA League is forever dead.» Right now the idea never got out of the formative stage because not enough schools were committed to it.‘‘We said we wouldn't join if we couldn’t get at least six schools and we couldn’t get six,” said Amherst Athletic Director Paul Srnis.“We were supposed to go back to our boards with the plans and I think there were some negative vibrations from the boards,” he said. “That’s what killed it.”There were some negative vibrations from the Elyria and Lorain boards, but, obviously, the Buckeye Conference schools—Elyria, Lorain and Admiral King—need a new league setup more than the Lakeland Conference schools—Midview, Amherst, North Ridge-vilie and Vermilion.Lorain and Admiral King need help at the gate and Elyria is rapidly approaching that stage. The Lakeland schools, though, already have natural rivalries and appear set.But that doesn’t mean it will always be so. The Lakeland Conference, as it is now constituted, is not a settled league“We’re pleased with the Lakeland,” said Amherst Principal Don Finley “But there’s quite a difference in the sizes of schools in the Lakeland. They range from Class A all the way to Triple-A. There’s a disparity of size in the Lakeland. The smaller schools are just as concerned as the bigger ones.”Phil Trout, principal at North Ridgeviile, agreed.As far as our relationship with other Lakeland schools goes, it’s good,” he said. “But four of the league schools have grown so rapidly the league is unbalanced m size. This is where the problem lies.”Apparently, the situation in the Lakeland is not critical enough to force its member schools to scatter and realignMidview, for instance, was merely going along for the ride when talks of a Lorain County League began.“At this moment we’re going to remain in the Lakeland,” said Midview Athletic Director Ed Adelsberg. ‘.‘We went (to the meetings) to see what they had to offer and to see what moves the other Lakeland schools made. If they had moved, it would have had an effect on the Lakeland and we would have had to make a move.“My interest was to protect Mid view,” he said.“If the league is strictly Class AAA, it’s a dead horse at this point,” Trout said. “But it might not always be. Given three-four-five years down the road, who knows?”One thing that stands in the path of a realigned Buckeye Conference (Lima Senior and Toledo Whitxner have supposedly been invited to join) for North Ridgeviile and Amherst is the travel factor.“We’re going there to listen,” Trout said of a Jan. 25meeting in Lorain. “But one of the biggest things is travel. From what I've heard schools will be playing two schools from the other division in football and all of them in basketball. That’s not solving any travel problem.”Amherst, too, is opposed to extensive travel.“Anything said now is totally premature,” said Srnis “We're extending them (the Buckeye) the courtesy, of going. The way things are going now there’re too many problems. I don’t imagine we’ll put much weight in it.”Competition is another factor. Next year Elyria will be playing North Ridgeviile and Lorain will meet Amherst in football.“We’re going to play some of these Buckeye Conference teams and we’ll see. We’re not really worried about that. We know we’re not going to win the whole thing (in all sports against the Buckeye Conference), but we know we can compete,” Srnis said.ta€cKT
Newspaper Details
The Chronicle Telegram
Elyria, Ohio, US
Sun, Jan 21, 1979
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
OH, USA 18 May 2021
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