Progress made in ICL-TCL merger

The new league would be divided into small-school and large-school divisions.
The Tri-County League and Inter-County League have been down this road before, but this time it looks like it won't be a dead end.
An eight-member committee consisting of principals and superintendents from the 16 schools met for the first time Wednesday afternoon to continue work on a proposed merger between the two leagues.
The goal 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. The objective is to level the playing field for all schools involved.
"We had some nice progress today," said Lisbon superintendent Donald Thompson, a member of the committee. "We basically worked on writing a league constitution and stating our objective for the league.
"We're encouraged that things have gotten this far, because they haven't in the past. But we're taking it one step at a time and will agree in principle first, before we get into specifics."
What was agreed
The committee met for about two hours setting up the constitution and other workings of the league, like the makeup of the new league, membership requirements and how things will run.
The current TCL is run by a board of control consisting of member schools' principals, while the ICL is overseen by schools' superintendents. The new league would incorporate both strategies of organization.
"We're looking to compromise and have an executive board made up of superintendents and a board of control consisting of principals," explained committee member Dennis Spisak, principal at Southern High.
The executive board would deal with constitutional issues like league expansion, realignment and contraction. The board of control would be charged with the day-to-day operations like scheduling, travel and issues dealing with league bylaws.
Tentatively, the new league would be divided into small-school and large-school divisions.
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 the ICL next year), Southern, Wellsville (joining the TCL next year) and Western Reserve.
Change in attitude
All this has been hashed out, on and off, for the last five years with nothing ever getting done. What's different this time around?
"I think this time you have all eight people in the room that want to make this happen, instead of coming up with excuses for why it can't," said Spisak. "I'm pleased with the progress we made today and I think everyone has come to the realization that we have to get this done so that everyone can be competitive."
Something that may have opened the eyes of league officials was the Week 10 cancellation of the Crestview-Southern football game. The Indians were forced to cancel the game because of a lack of players.
This has been a concern for some of the small schools, like Southern, Sebring and Western Reserve for several years. A new league, with schools playing others with similar numbers, would help guard against another forfeiture situation in the future.
"I think some of the small schools saw that and realized that it could happen to them if we don't do something," said Spisak. "And the big schools saw that having one of their games canceled could have a big effect on them."
What happens next
So, where do things go from here?
The committee will meet again in early December to continue work on the constitution, which is about half written. After the constitution is finished, each league will take it their current board of control for approval. A tentative deadline for that is in January.
If approved, the committee will meet to draw up bylaws for the new league and make sure everything is in place.
There is no timetable for beginning play, but nothing is likely to start until 2006.
As for the name of the new league, that will likely be the very last thing on the agenda.
With the rich histories of both leagues, neither will likely give up their name too easily.
"We talked about that for about five minutes and moved on," said Spisak.
"At this point, we're like parents -- we know we're having a baby, but we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet, so we can't pick a name."