HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS Is eight enough for MAC? League adds two schools

Campbell Memorial, East Liverpool have joined, and more expansion is possible.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Now that the Metro Athletic Conference has adopted two more schools, the next step is to create schedules.
The MAC invited Campbell Memorial and East Liverpool to join the league, beginning as soon as schedule arrangements can be worked out. In essence, those invitations expanded the league to eight schools when those districts returned forms of application to conference commissioner Clem Zumpella.
Zumpella said East Liverpool has an athletic council which must still approve the move, but he said he was assured Tuesday by a high school representative that such a vote is little more than a formality.
The MAC began to more actively seek expansion after the proposed superconference idea fell through earlier this year.
Girard left the MAC following the 1999-2000 school year for the Trumbull Athletic Conference. At the time, Girard had the smallest enrollment in the league.
Expand or collapse
Today, Struthers has the smallest enrollment and the MAC board, made up of the high school principals, was concerned that it would seek another league affiliation.
"We're going to be at six schools with Alliance leaving," said Zumpella, "and we were worried about becoming five."
Alliance, which joined the MAC prior to the 2002-03 school year, will join the Stark County-based Northeastern Buckeye Conference for next fall.
Zumpella said the MAC wanted to find schools that would provide a balance -- one big-enrollment school and one-small enrollment.
East Liverpool has 362 boys in the top three grades this year, which would make it the third-largest school in the conference, behind Canfield (404 boys) and Howland (396 boys).
Campbell Memorial has 193 boys, making it the smallest of the eight schools. Struthers, which has enjoyed a long-time athletic rivalry with Campbell, has 253 boys.
"When the superconference idea was being talked about, Campbell and East Liverpool were considered part of the plan," said Zumpella. "When that fell through, frankly, we still knew they were two schools out there that we were interested in."
Scheduling questions
There are still some concerns. At least one of the larger schools isn't very recepetive to playing two Division IV schools in football, because of the ramifications regarding computer points for the state playoffs. Zumpella said there is a possibility that the league will be divided for football.
"That plan is on the table, but it is in its infancy," he said. "There's nothing cast in stone."
Zumpella said the division idea would allow the MAC to expand further, to as many as 16 schools.
"There isn't the concern in the other sports because every team makes the playoffs," added Zumpella.
"Let's face it, football is the engine that drives this train," he said. "Football is the motivation [for the expansion] but we want to do what is good for everyone in the league."
The Metro Athletic Conference was formed in 1994, when four schools -- Canfield, Salem, Struthers and Girard -- left the Mahoning Valley Conference. Howland and Niles joined the MAC, leaving Campbell Memorial and Warren John F. Kennedy, the other former MVC schools, as independents.
Earlier this year, JFK joined the Steel Valley Conference for all sports except football, in which it remains an independent.Campbell remains independent in all sports.