ICL-TCL Merger almost finished

The final draft of the constitution will be presented Jan. 5.
The proposed merger involving the Tri-County League and Inter-County League is now one step closer to reality.
The eight-member committee consisting of principals and superintendents from the 16 schools met for the second time Wednesday afternoon to continue work on the new league constitution.
The goal of the whole process is to create a two-division league, based on OHSAA enrollment figures, enabling the bigger schools to compete in one division and the smaller schools in the other.
Based on the current numbers, the big schools are Columbiana, Crestview, East Palestine, Lisbon, Mineral Ridge, South Range, Springfield and United. The small schools include Jackson-Milton, Leetonia, Lowellville, McDonald, Sebring (joining ICL next year), Southern, Wellsville (joining TCL next year) and Western Reserve.
The schools in each league could change every two years, if OHSAA's enrollment numbers change significantly. The numbers are released every two years, instead of every year.
The eight biggest schools in the new league would compete in the league's Division I and the smallest eight in Division II.
Dotting I's, crossing T's
The committee put most of the finishing touches on the new league's constitution. The document will be revised and a final draft will be presented to the committee at its next meeting on January 5.
"Basically tonight, we finished up the constitution and debated adding some things or excluding some things that are in the current TCL and ICL constitutions," said Southern High principal and committee member Dennis Spisak. "The more time we talk about the merger, the more positive feelings we get about it working out. I really don't see a monkey wrench in the process."
The constitution addresses such things as who will be in control of which decisions, how the league bylaws will be written, the process of amending the constitution in the future and how often the constitution will be reviewed.
In the new league, there will be three levels of control. The 16 superintendents will make up the executive board and would deal with constitutional issues like league expansion, realignment and contraction.
The board of control, consisting of the 16 school principals, would be charged with the day-to-day operations like travel and issues dealing with league bylaws.
The third level will involve the athletic directors, who will be responsible for scheduling, among other things.
Scheduling issues
At this point, there will be two league champions -- one in each division. In football, especially, it wouldn't be feasible to have a championship game. Weeks 1 through 3 of the football season would be open for teams to schedule non-league games, which could include a team from the other division. For example, Leetonia from the small school division could continue its rivalry with Columbiana, but it would have to be played in one of the first three weeks of the season.
In addressing the travel aspect of the league, earlier start times on school nights has been discussed. For instance, in basketball season if a team is forced to travel to the far reaches of another county, the junior varsity game could start at 5:30 p.m. instead of the usual 6 p.m. That would push the varsity game up to about 7 p.m.
Furthest from the committee's mind, but a critical issue is the league's name. It's obvious that both the TCL and ICL have a lot of tradition and don't want to give it up.
"We've kicked around some names and I think we're leaning toward one, but that could change," said Spisak. "Whatever we call it will probably be representative of both of the current leagues."
One name that was mentioned but has since been eliminated, is the TCICC. That would have stood for the Tri-County Inter-County Conference.
"It was just too long and awkward," said Spisak. "It had too many Cs."
Next up
The next step in the process will happen at the January 5 meeting when the final draft of the constitution will be given to the committee. That proposal will be distributed to both the ICL and TCL boards of control to review and ratify. Assuming both leagues OK the constitution, another meeting will be called in February involving the principals. That group, the board of control, will start writing the new bylaws. Topics covered would include scheduling, awards, ticket prices, sportsmanship, criterion for selecting league all-stars, etc.
At this point, the league would not begin play until the fall of 2006.
"We're making progress," said Spisak. "I'm pretty optimistic that this is going to work out and the big schools can compete with each other and the small schools will play each other. I think it will be good for everyone."