Jay Co. should accept invite

When the Jay School Board meets Monday, it should vote to approve Jay County High School’s entry to the North Central Conference.
JCHS has been competing as an independent for three years. But the reality is, the Patriots have not been part of a legitimate conference for much longer than that.
The Olympic Athletic Conference dropped from 10 teams to five when Hamilton Southeastern, Noblesville, Brownsburg, Harrison and McCutcheon all left the group to become part of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference. That move took effect in 2001.
A five-team conference is barely viable. And when Huntington North departed three years later the OAC was left at a foundering four.
The group, which also included Connersville, Anderson Highland and Muncie Southside, hoped to be able to lure other schools to rebuild the conference.
Instead, Highland closed in 2010, and the Olympic Athletic Conference dissolved.
So for more than a decade, JCHS has been looking for a solution. For 12 years I’ve written about the Patriots’ struggles to find a league. This is the first time in that span that possibilities have moved past the discussion phase and become a reality.
Membership in a conference is a good thing for schools and their students for a variety of reasons.
It gives athletes something to play for prior to the sectional tournament. It’s important to have something, other than pride, on the line. And playing the same teams in every sport, year in and year out, with a conference title on the line produces strong rivalries.
Being a member of a conference also provides another opportunity for athletes to earn recognition. An all-conference award in a four- or five-team Olympic Athletic Conference was fine, but being honored as one of the best in the league in a 12-team NCC would truly be an accomplishment. A team conference title would be something to celebrate.
Conference membership also makes life much easier when it comes to scheduling in all sports, and especially in football. No longer does a school have to struggle to find games on nights when most other teams are playing conference contests. (As an independent, JCHS is still working to lock in a football game for week three next season. The opponent will likely be a team from Canada.)
I also see the opportunity to create added interest by forming a North Central Conference media association. Lafayette, Logansport, Kokomo, Marion, Huntington, Anderson, Muncie, New Castle and Richmond all have newspapers and radio stations. Those organizations could get together to do preseason polls in each sport, vote for preseason and postseason all-conference teams and compile conference stat leaders.
It’s true that the North Central Conference is not a perfect fit for Jay County.
Ideally student athletes wouldn’t have to make trips as far away as Lafayette to play Harrison, Jefferson and McCutcheon, the three other invitees who have already agreed to join the NCC. It would be preferred to be one of the bigger schools in the conference, rather than the third smallest, ahead of only New Castle and Muncie Central.
There are questions about how the 12-team conference will be structured.
How will schedules in team sports be determined? Will the basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, volleyball and softball teams be expected to play all of their 11 conference rivals? Or will they only play the five teams in their division with a tournament to follow?
What will the conference meets/tournaments look like for cross country, swimming, wrestling, track, gymnastics and golf?
But these are questions that 12 reasonable principals and a dozen athletics directors should be able to work out in a way that is beneficial to all of the NCC’s members.
There is talk out there of other possibilities. But there is always talk. It rarely becomes reality.
The chance to join the North Central Conference is real. It’s viable. And it is here now.
Jay County has not been part of a true conference since the turn of the century. It should take advantage of the opportunity.[[In-content Ad]]