LeBlond going 8-man
- Thread starter HoopsTournament
- Start date
If they don't consider Kansas City to be in northwest Missouri, then can we claim that St. Joseph is in Kansas?
Here is what no one on the board is talking about. St. Joseph Christian was looking for a team to co-op with to play 11-man football. Leblond is having participation problems. Why would two schools in the same town not co-op and play 11-man? You can’t argue that they’d be class 2 or 3 counting both schools enrollment as Leblond plays class 3 and 4 schools anyway. Instead Leblond is dropping to 8-man and Christian is trying to co-op with a school 43 miles away. If this is allowed to continue there should be a push for 2 divisions in 8-man like in Nebraska and Kansas.
Two possible reasons:
1. Northland Christian contacted SJC before LeBlond.
2. SJC did not want to play bigger schools and wanted to play GRC teams
We are a long way away from 2 8-man divisions. I think it has to get over 64 for that to happen.
LeBlond would not have publicly announced they are going to 8-man if they were too big.
St. Joe is not in KC DMA. They have their own network tv channels. KC does not act like schools in our area are part of KC area so why should they be part of NWMO?
If their enrollment is going to drop that much, how could the Diocese afford or want to keep them open with St. Pius X down the road? See St. Mary's. Before that, Bishop Hogan. Before that Bishop Lillis.
According to mshsaa.org, LeBlond's enrollment for the past season - including the multiplier - was 162. That's well under the 8-man max of 200. I have no idea, obviously, sitting up here in Princeton, what their current 9-11 enrollment is for the 2019 season, but from a distance it would seem to me that LeBlond would continue to be under that limit, and maybe more under it than for the past season. My question - and I'll humbly ask for Hoops' input - is that, might the MEC suggest that LeBlond leave that conference? Hoops, correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't LeBlond not be able to field a softball team 2 of the past 3 years? That could be another reason the MEC might ask LeBlond to leave. But, I have no idea of what the other 7 schools might want.
St. Joe is definitely not a part of KC, but that has nothing to do with both cities being in northwest Missouri.
And "does not act ..."? Dude, we're discussing geography.
I tried to link to a tweet, but Michael Evans on Twitter said they would be under 150.
No, MEC has not asked LeBlond to leave based on what I have heard. Also I believe that the 150 requirement is raw number of students, not multiplier adjusted. LeBlond's number of students for 3 classes was 40 per class.
I agree we are a long way from having 2 divisions for 8-man, however at the rate teams are moving down to 8-man over just the past two seasons it could be a possibility sooner than you think. There are quite a few class 1 teams that could drop to 8-man that are only a few losing seasons away from making the move. I don’t fault Leblond for the move. They have to do something to keep the program, however, I do think that a Christian/Leblond co-op would make much more sense.
It's a lot different with one school in St. Joe vs. having multiple options in KC. They are not at risk.
I’ll add that dropping to 8-man doesn’t guarantee anyone a championship. Will a team most likely improve their record...sure. There is a large gap between top level 8-man teams and lower level teams. However, out of all of the teams that have dropped in recent years there are 0 state champions out of that group. The top level teams in 8-man could play in class 1 and still do pretty well. Both Mound City and Worth County would’ve given anyone in class 1 a run for their money this year. Some of the 8-man teams even tend to have more kids on their roster year-to-year than a lot of class 1 teams that are hesitant to move down.
PCole, that number will be 150 under the new guidelines - the 200 was for counting 4 classes. If LeBlond is at 120, with the current multiplier, that would put them over 160. It is not for just raw students.
Come April, who knows what the new enrollment guidelines will be.
Come April, who knows what the new enrollment guidelines will be.
Michael Evans, the LeBlond AD, posted that they would be under the maximum amount. I trust that he made sure that he ran this by MSHSAA before he issued a press release.
That has nothing to do with why LeBlond and St. Joe Christian aren’t co-oping. The two schools have a great relationship when it comes to athletics.
