Move to Fed is a sure bet

In the past five years, Boardman and Austintown Fitch have gone from thinking about joining the Federal League, to talking about it, to seriously talking about it, to sending letters of interest -- the first of which was rejected last June -- to finally meeting with the league's administrators on Wednesday, to being invited to join.
After all this, you're still going to hear from school officials that they're not sure which way the board of education will vote, and that there's a chance they'll stay in the Steel Valley Conference (Related story on C6).
Don't bet on it.
If school officials thought the board would vote it down, they wouldn't have gone to all this trouble. They have better things to do. What you'll end up hearing is that everyone took a lot of time to discuss it and that it was a very difficult decision, but they think joining the Federal is the best thing for their schools both now and in the future.
The reason they'll say that is because it's true.
Only thing: At this point, the only thing that would keep Fitch and Boardman from leaving is if hundreds of fans speak out against the move, and that won't happen.
So what happens next?
Neither Ursuline nor Mooney wants to be independent. The two schools are meeting on Thursday with athletic directors and principals from St. Thomas Aquinas, Canton Central Catholic, Warren JFK and Ashtabula Sts. John & amp; Paul to talk about scheduling.
The schools could form an all-parochial school league in the future.
"Possibly, that could happen," Mooney athletic director Don Bucci said. "But that's not the primary purpose of the meeting."
Options: Sts. John & amp; Paul is too small to compete in a league with those schools, so they wouldn't join. Akron Hoban, Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit and Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary are other options.
"Warren JFK is sort of in and out [of contending], especially in football," Ursuline AD Jim Maughan said. "Mooney, St. Thomas and Central are on the same par as far as size. We'll have to see what's presented."
Warren Harding expressed interest in the Federal, but the reception wasn't warm.
"[Fitch A.D.] Dick Kenney made it clear in the SVC meeting that the Federal League has no interest in Warren Harding," Harding football coach Thom McDaniels said.
So McDaniels arranged a meeting in Canton last month with Mooney, Ursuline, St. Ignatius, Lakewood St. Edward, Central Catholic, Canton McKinley and Massillon Washington to talk about scheduling. Those schools will meet again on March 20 -- one day after the SVC banquet -- in Warren.
Objective: McDaniels doesn't want to form some sort of super-conference, he just wants to make sure Harding's scheduling situation doesn't get even worse. Logically, if Fitch and Boardman already are playing six Division I schools -- which is what the expanded Federal League would have, along with Uniontown Lake in Div. II -- they're not going to want to schedule Harding every year.
Boardman athletic director Jim Fox said Wednesday that he'd like to keep Chaney and St. Ignatius on the schedule, which would leave one opening. Are they going to fill that with Harding? Possibly, but that would leave them with the most brutal schedule in the state, so I don't think it's likely.
League rumors will really start to heat up after March 19 when Fitch and Boardman officially notify the SVC that they're leaving. (That should be an interesting banquet, by the way).
Will Lake then decide to leave the Federal? Will Ursuline and Mooney try to join a local league or form a new one? What happens to Harding?
I guess we'll find out. Things should get interesting.
XJoe Scalzo is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at scalzo@vindy.com.