Powell Latimer
powell.latimer@register-news.com
MT. VERNON —
Recent shifts in the landscape of Southern Illinois High School athletics could leave Mt. Vernon and the South Seven Conference out in the cold.
The Apollo Conference is still seeking further expansion after three of it’s members left the conference earlier this year, and some candidates the conference is looking to add are in the South Seven.
Olney, Robinson, and Newton, the three easternmost schools in the Apollo Conference, decided to leave starting in 2012-2013. That decision triggered a quick reaction from the remaining members.
Charleston, Effingham, Mt. Zion, Paris and Salem invited Mattoon High School, which accepted the invitation June 8. The conference also extended an invitation to Teutopolis High School, which hasn’t yet been accepted or declined.
But with seven conference members and the potential for the Wooden Shoes to add a football program, the Apollo Conference is looking to expand even further.
“Ideally, we’d like to end up back at eight or 10,” Mt. Zion Principal and Apollo Conference Treasurer Greg Bradley said. “10 would be perfect if we could do that.”
The main concerns about any further expansion plans would be travel, which puts a very short list of schools in the mix.
Centralia High School is one of those candidates. A member of the South Seven Conference, the Orphans sit just 15 miles south of Salem High School. The farthest high school from Centralia is Paris at 124 miles.
“The problem with our conference is that (expansion) increases the travel for some of them,” Bradley said. “So that’s the situation we have to deal with.”
Centralia is also a potential fit in its population. With an enrollment of 1,028 according to the Illinois Department of Education, Centralia High School is larger than every school save recently-added Mattoon. Those extra numbers allow for a potential competitive advantage, especially in football, where the Orphans have perennially struggled, winning just two games in the past five seasons.
“There’s lots of schools on the radar out there,” Bradley said. “If we decide to start talking about 10 we’d at least like to see how they feel.”
Any expansion changes the conference dynamic, and if the South Seven loses any member it faces a sticky situation.
With six members currently, the conference has the minimum number of participants to qualify for the state football playoffs.
If the Apollo Conference decides to try and woo Centralia away, or if the domino effect from expansion takes one of the other members away, the South Seven and MVTHS by extension face difficult choices.
Mt. Vernon Athletic Director Doug Creel said the school isn’t looking seriously at other options.
“We’re happy in the South Seven,” Creel said. “We’re not window-shopping.”
And the Apollo Conference’s rapid-fire expansion is likely to slow.
Adding Mattoon gave the Apollo Conference the requisite six members for a football conference, and even if Teutopolis, which currently doesn’t have a football program, joins the Apollo and decides to add football, the conference can now contemplate its options.
“If Teutopolis comes in as a non-football school that doesn’t really have much of an effect on our football schedules,” Bradley said. “But if they do add football, then we obviously need to add an eighth school, but we’re really open right now.”
