The NLC Has A Decision To Make
July 19, 2017 at 4:06 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
Spearheaded by former Warsaw Superintendent Dr. Robert Haworth, Elkhart will be one high school sometime in the next three years. Haworth and those in favor of the plan (which is way too complicated to completely cover in this column) will bring the two schools together to become a “united Elkhart.” It may bring them together, but I doubt it will do much to unite anyone.
I’m not here to say this is good or bad for Elkhart, but as the merger draws near there are some issues that it brings to the forefront of the area high school sports scene that will need to be addressed, and soon.
The biggest: What will the Northern Lakes Conference do?
With Central and Memorial joining as one high school, the high school will be called “Elkhart.” People in-the-know are telling me that the mascot will be the Blue Blazers and the color scheme will not include any crimson coloring (which was suggested to help with that whole “unity” thing).
They are expected to compete in the Northern Indiana Conference and align themselves with Penn, the South Bend schools and smaller schools in rural St. Joe County. A source has told me that they have applied for membership to both the NIC and the NLC. If that is true, and I believe that it is, it’s a smart move. It gives them options and flexibility.
In my opinion, the new Elkhart would be wise to get into the Northern Lakes Conference. It would save money in travel, since they would have Concord, Goshen, Northridge and NorthWood in Elkhart County in the NLC and only Jimtown is in the NIC. South Bend isn’t that far away, but when you are talking $33 million dollars to do what Elkhart wants to do … it matters.
From a success standpoint, if you put yourself into the NLC you stand a much better chance of winning than you would if you had to deal with Penn in every sport every year, right?
But there are hills to die on and it appears being the Elkhart Blue Blazers of the Northern Indiana Conference are where they are planting their flag. They have that choice.
There is another hill that is worthy of a bigger debate, and it runs on generational lines. With the current Central building planned to house grades 6-9 and the current Memorial grades 10-12, it would seem obvious that home varsity football games would be played at Charger Field. It’s a beautiful facility, relatively new, and more than adequate to be Elkhart’s home no matter what conference they choose.
But, just like there seems to be no path for Elkhart to the NLC, there also doesn’t seem to be a thought of the Blazers playing anywhere but Rice Field.
Assuming my source is right that the NIC will be the final destination for Elkhart, that means a hole will be created in the NLC. That brings us back to the question … what will the NLC do?
The NLC was a seven-team league for a long time. My sense, without contacting any athletic directors to ask them about it, is that there may not be a huge rush to fill the void left by Memorial. The main reason for that would be that there is no clear-cut candidate to join.
Jimtown? Fairfield? Bremen? West Noble?
Nope. I just don’t see any of it. Those mostly are smaller schools who don’t seem ready to step into the eighth slot of a conference that features 4A, 5A and 6A football schools and 3A and 4A basketball schools.
Jimtown and Fairfield are not the football powerhouses they once were, and Bremen left the NLC once already.
Who else fits the enrollment and geography? There really isn’t anyone.
Of course, there has been talk for the last 10 years about Warsaw pulling out of the NLC in favor of jumping to a conference with Carroll, Homestead and Huntington North. I never bought into that concept because of the geography. Warsaw has no business being in the Fort Wayne-based Summit Athletic Conference, and I don’t think anyone from Fort Wayne is excited about the regular, weeknight bus rides to Warsaw.
Sooooo … when Memorial and Central become “one united Elkhart” I think the NLC will return to being a seven team coalition. That means an extra week of non-conference games for football right in the middle of the schedule, which could be a nightmare. It means athletic departments would be scrambling to find dance partners in an out-of-the-ordinary place – which is code for playing schools outside your classification or where Mapquest might be required. It also means one less trip to Elkhart, and one less host school to worry about at North Side Gym’s boys basketball sectional.
More than that, it means the end of the era for the NLC.
Spearheaded by former Warsaw Superintendent Dr. Robert Haworth, Elkhart will be one high school sometime in the next three years. Haworth and those in favor of the plan (which is way too complicated to completely cover in this column) will bring the two schools together to become a “united Elkhart.” It may bring them together, but I doubt it will do much to unite anyone.
I’m not here to say this is good or bad for Elkhart, but as the merger draws near there are some issues that it brings to the forefront of the area high school sports scene that will need to be addressed, and soon.
The biggest: What will the Northern Lakes Conference do?
With Central and Memorial joining as one high school, the high school will be called “Elkhart.” People in-the-know are telling me that the mascot will be the Blue Blazers and the color scheme will not include any crimson coloring (which was suggested to help with that whole “unity” thing).
They are expected to compete in the Northern Indiana Conference and align themselves with Penn, the South Bend schools and smaller schools in rural St. Joe County. A source has told me that they have applied for membership to both the NIC and the NLC. If that is true, and I believe that it is, it’s a smart move. It gives them options and flexibility.
In my opinion, the new Elkhart would be wise to get into the Northern Lakes Conference. It would save money in travel, since they would have Concord, Goshen, Northridge and NorthWood in Elkhart County in the NLC and only Jimtown is in the NIC. South Bend isn’t that far away, but when you are talking $33 million dollars to do what Elkhart wants to do … it matters.
From a success standpoint, if you put yourself into the NLC you stand a much better chance of winning than you would if you had to deal with Penn in every sport every year, right?
But there are hills to die on and it appears being the Elkhart Blue Blazers of the Northern Indiana Conference are where they are planting their flag. They have that choice.
There is another hill that is worthy of a bigger debate, and it runs on generational lines. With the current Central building planned to house grades 6-9 and the current Memorial grades 10-12, it would seem obvious that home varsity football games would be played at Charger Field. It’s a beautiful facility, relatively new, and more than adequate to be Elkhart’s home no matter what conference they choose.
But, just like there seems to be no path for Elkhart to the NLC, there also doesn’t seem to be a thought of the Blazers playing anywhere but Rice Field.
Assuming my source is right that the NIC will be the final destination for Elkhart, that means a hole will be created in the NLC. That brings us back to the question … what will the NLC do?
The NLC was a seven-team league for a long time. My sense, without contacting any athletic directors to ask them about it, is that there may not be a huge rush to fill the void left by Memorial. The main reason for that would be that there is no clear-cut candidate to join.
Jimtown? Fairfield? Bremen? West Noble?
Nope. I just don’t see any of it. Those mostly are smaller schools who don’t seem ready to step into the eighth slot of a conference that features 4A, 5A and 6A football schools and 3A and 4A basketball schools.
Jimtown and Fairfield are not the football powerhouses they once were, and Bremen left the NLC once already.
Who else fits the enrollment and geography? There really isn’t anyone.
Of course, there has been talk for the last 10 years about Warsaw pulling out of the NLC in favor of jumping to a conference with Carroll, Homestead and Huntington North. I never bought into that concept because of the geography. Warsaw has no business being in the Fort Wayne-based Summit Athletic Conference, and I don’t think anyone from Fort Wayne is excited about the regular, weeknight bus rides to Warsaw.
Sooooo … when Memorial and Central become “one united Elkhart” I think the NLC will return to being a seven team coalition. That means an extra week of non-conference games for football right in the middle of the schedule, which could be a nightmare. It means athletic departments would be scrambling to find dance partners in an out-of-the-ordinary place – which is code for playing schools outside your classification or where Mapquest might be required. It also means one less trip to Elkhart, and one less host school to worry about at North Side Gym’s boys basketball sectional.
More than that, it means the end of the era for the NLC.
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