New Conference, New OppportunityLast school year, you might remember that I shared a very open hope that Lakeland Christian Academy would take a good, long look at their boys basketball schedule and beef it up some.
Within two weeks, I was forwarded a schedule for the upcoming season that was just what I was hoping to see.
I never “called out” anyone like it may have felt to some, but I wanted (and still want) LCA to grow athletically within the framework of its bigger, Bible-based mission—and to remind us all that it is possible to accomplish that.
Well you can imagine the smile on my face Friday when word came out of a new conference being formed to start competition next fall.
The new, seven-team Hoosier Plains Conference would include Argos, Trinity in South Bend, Elkhart Christian, Bethany Christian, South Bend Career Academy, Oregon-Davis and….wait for it…Lakeland Christian Academy.
Cool!
Since that announcement Friday, Oregon-Davis has reportedly undergone a change of heart and will no longer merge into the new HPC. Geographically, that won’t hurt the feelings of the folks from Elkhart and Waterford Mills, who would have found the nearly-100-mile round trips to-and-from Hamlet at least annoying.
So the Hoosier Plains Conference will launch with six ships.
Here is why I like this merger.
The schools in the NPC have a common bond—soccer. The six schools are soccer-playing schools and will never be big enough to support or inclined to try to field a football team. Joining any other conference would be impossible without a football team, so this works for all.
The schools in this new conference have a common mindset. These are schools of similar size, which you would anticipate in a newly constructed league. They have similar experiences and deal with similar problems and challenges—like small enrollments, small attendance figures and small budgets. That means the member schools should be highly motivated to work together, and that means creativity comes to the fore and new ideas will be critical to its health and well-being.
The sizzle of conference play entices fan bases. I think most athletic directors would say that attendance at conference games is better than at non-conference games—maybe significantly so. Conference games mean regular competition, which leads to heightened competitive juices, which breeds rivalries, which brings fans—it’s a natural progression.
Now, the challenge these schools face—except for one—is that these are not community schools. Argos has a community to draw from, but the others do not. If we learned anything from Warsaw’s run through the football playoffs, it’s how vital the support of a community is to the success of its athletic teams. Private schools do not get that kind of push outside of Fort Wayne and South Bend.
No window painting.
No police escorts.
But, no less important to those athletes and their families.
So I say “BRAVO!” to Lakeland Christian Academy and the members of the newly created Hoosier Plains Conference. You are marrying into a new family. That means you will undoubtedly become annoyed with them. You will find them hard to live with and just as hard to live without.
And they will grow on you.
Yes, there will be hard times. Yes, it is a little bit scary. Yes, it certainly is a major commitment.
But trust me, Cougars, but you will never regret it.
