Mirror file photo When the Bellwood-Antis football team walks on the field this fall, it could be the last time as an ICC member.
By Michael Boytim
The Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference completed a 13-0 unanimous vote among its members to expand to a 27-member, multi-region conference on Monday afternoon.
“The Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference voted today to extend invitations to 14 area school districts to join the LHAC for the 2023-24 season,” LHAC chairman Scott Close said. “Five of the school districts (Meyersdale, North Star, Berlin Brothersvalley, Conemaugh Township and Windber) approved a move to the LHAC in February. The invitation will be on an upcoming board agenda for the other nine schools. Those nine schools are Tyrone, Bellwood-Antis, Huntingdon, Clearfield, Philipsburg-Osceola, Bellefonte, Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley and Hollidaysburg, which was invited for all sports except football.”
The move would bring an end to the Mountain League in all sports and the WestPAC in football.
“In District 6, you have the (Inter-County) and the Heritage Conference,” District 6 chairman Bill Marshall said. “Those schools are in conferences that have been established for a long time, and I know that those schools also reached out to some of these schools about expansion (Conemaugh Valley made a commitment to leave the WestPAC for the Heritage recently). Ultimately, you have the history and the stability of the ICC and the Heritage Conference that moving forward, we’ll be more or less a three-conference district and we’ll be able to fill each other’s schedule without anyone being put on an island.”
Bellwood-Antis will try to get board approval in April. Hollidaysburg athletic director Homer DeLattre said his school will put an approval to a board vote on March 16. Tyrone athletic director Luke Rhoades said he preferred not to comment until any move was official.
“We are very excited to be accepted into the Laurel Highlands,” Bellwood-Antis athletic director Charlie Burch said. “However, the board will put this on the agenda for April and take some more time to research and discuss it more.”
Hollidaysburg is competing in the Mountain League this season for the first time in all sports except football.
“Just like going into the Mountain League a little bit over a year ago, I think it’s a great benefit to our athletic programs,” DeLattre said. “Joining into an even bigger conference and more competitive overall is a great help to our programs overall. The Laurel Highlands has a great track record of success in postseason play, and I think it’s only going to help us.”
The current members of the LHAC are Bedford, Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic, Bishop McCort, Central, Central Cambria, Chestnut Ridge, Forest Hills, Johnstown, Penn Cambria, Richland, Somerset, Westmont Hilltop and Bishop Carroll in all sports except football, though the Huskies are currently in a co-op with member school McCort.
“Student population is changing, and there’s a lot of factors outside the academic world that are going to impact high schools,” Bishop Guilfoyle athletic director Joe Landolfi said. “The number of school districts that we have today may not be the number of school districts that we have in the future. This enables the members of our conference to adapt to school closures and mergers. This way you don’t lose games, because you have other members to fill those open spaces. It makes sense all the way around. It gives you stability as a conference.”
According to Close, the league will be regionalized to create yearly rivalries and minimize travel, with championships between sections in certain sports, along with league wide championships in individual events, and it is also the goal of the league to include academic competitions along with this expansion.
As the District 6 chairman, Marshall supports the expansion because it provides stability in his eyes.
“We had a number of WestPAC schools and Mountain League schools that could not fill their schedules as they stood alone,” Marshall said. “This expansion is creating schedule stability for these 27 schools for many years to come. We’re seeing it at the District 6 level that more and more schools because of declining numbers have been forced to enter into co-ops in multiple sports, and they are doing that as a last resort right before the season starts. A bigger conference allows the conference to absorb the loss of a school entering into a co-op.”
Close said the next step following the nine remaining schools gaining board approval will be setting the regions.
“A committee of athletic directors from the expanded league will be formed to work on the new sections of the conference,” Close said. “It is anticipated that proposals will be designed by late April with approval from all schools of the alignment coming in early May.
“A special thank you to those members of the expansion committee who took a small idea that started back in June and massaged it into what could be a great conference” Close continued. “I think the opportunities that this creates for the student-athletes of the LHAC is wonderful.”
Landolfi is looking forward to Blair County rivalry games between teams like Tyrone, Bellwood-Antis, BG and Central.
“You will see the continued rivalry of Tyrone and Bellwood in football,” Landolfi said. “But now you’ll see Tyrone and Bellwood compete with Bishop Guilfoyle in football, basketball, baseball and all the other sports, so it’s good for the region, the community as a whole and the kids that you get to see these local teams playing against each other.”
DeLattre said that while Hollidaysburg will not be part of the league in football, he’s hoping to play some of the new LHAC teams during their non-conference week.
“It’s what we have been doing, and we have made it work,” DeLattre said. “We certainly wish to get a few games in the new Laurel Highlands league. It says not for football, but that doesn’t mean there won’t still be some opportunities for us to still play some of the teams in higher classifications in football, which I think we will, as long as they are willing.”
