Divisions ease travel concerns, raise excitement for competition

TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - Three major high schools in the area will be moving to a conference with schools up to 2.5 hours away. But administrators said students may actually have less time on the bus.

The North Central Conference, which is adding Harrison, Lafayette Jeff and McCutcheon, has schools from eastern Indiana, including  Muncie, Anderson and Richmond.

Local administrators said travel was their initial concern when the three area schools were invited to the NCC. But after considering separate divisions, the idea of joining became more appealing.

In December, Lafayette Jeff, Harrison and McCutcheon were told the seven Indianapolis-based schools in the Hoosier Crossroads Conference were leaving to form a new conference in their area.

Leaving the three schools without a game plan, they joined the North Central Conference. As News 18 reported, Jeff was the first to join on Monday, followed by Harrison and McCutcheon on Wednesday.

The NCC consists of schools from the east side of the state like Muncie Central, Anderson and Richmond. The fact that all these schools are at least two hours away was a problem. The solution was to create divisions among the conference.

"We're going to split into an east and west division. So, in our division, it would be Lafayette Jeff, McCutcheon, Harrison, Kokomo, Logansport and Marion, which we think is going to greatly reduce our travel time compared to making, potentially, four or five trips to Indianapolis," said Jerry Galema, Harrison's Athletic Director.

Galema said he hopes the fan base will be greater when traveling to schools like Kokomo and Logansport, as opposed to traveling to the Indy schools. He said everybody likes a good rivalry.

"With the sectional rivalries that have been established, those will continue. We think there will be some great rivalries anticipated with Kokomo, Logansport and Marion. We're hoping that really helps our fan base," Galema said.

The new conference will go into effect for the 2014-2015 school year, which is just in time for Shailen Johnson's senior year at Harrison. She said she's excited about joining the NCC because the schools in the conference are the same size as Harrison, McCutcheon and Jeff. She hopes this will create more competition.

"Being the smaller school in the HCC, having to go against all those Indy schools that have people doing Division 1, out-of-state in every sport, usually, it's kind of more a confidence booster, knowing that we have such a good chance to compete with all these teams," Johnson explained.

Although Harrison, Jeff and McCutcheon will be playing several division games against Kokomo, Logansport and Marion, there will still be times when the teams have to make the two-hour trip east. But administrators hope those games can be scheduled on Fridays and Saturdays, instead of school nights.

Galema said the only sport that most likely won't go into divisions is boys basketball. He said the sport has a very rich history in the NCC. Therefore, all teams will play each other during the season.