Story published: Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008
League landscape primed for shake-up
Tod Palmer
The Sunflower and East Kansas Leagues could be in for a shake up in the near future.
Blue Valley Southwest is expected to open in August 2010. At the latest, Olathe West should open a year later.
Therein lies the problem.
The Sunflower League probably is maxed out at 12 teams. Heck, 12 teams may be too many as it is.
Adding West would create even more of a burden for the league, not only because there would be far too many teams but also because it would create an odd number of teams.
Setting a league schedule when one team always has to find a non-league opponent is a ridiculous proposition no athletic director wants.
The EKL faces a similar dilemma with the possibility of a seven-school league when the Blue Valley district adds its fifth high school.
As a result, there may be changes on the way.
"We have an interest in having a different look when Blue Valley Southwest comes into our league," Blue Valley District Athletic Director Richard Bechard said.
He informed the the league of as much at a recent meeting, making it known change was needed — somehow and some way before 2010 arrives.
I'm told taxpayers aren't likely to approve a sixth high school for 2011 in Blue Valley, so expect a shake up that rates at least 8.5 on the Richter scale before the 2009-10 academic year begins.
The league landscape in Johnson County will change — even if no one seems too eager to talk about it publicly.
"There's been no talk of leaving the EKL or dissolving the EKL," Bechard said.
But a breath later he concedes that change is coming, and sooner rather than later.
Football in Kansas is a unique animal.
While every other sport's classification — 6A, 5A, 4A, etc. — is set according to high school enrollment in late September, football's classification formula counts only the top three grades and runs in two-year cycles.
The latest districts were set in the fall, so the next round of district pairings will come in the fall of 2009.
The two-year cycle exists to ensure an equal number of home district games for each program, but it also means that Johnson County athletic directors will want pending league issues settled before those classifications are tabulated 20 months from now.
One option would be for the EKL to add a team, which would create quite a conundrum for the Sunflower League down the road — a 13th school is coming.
That seems like the least attractive option, though.
It's more likely the five-high school Blue Valley district will reach out to the five-high school Shawnee Mission district or the soon-to-be five-high school Olathe district to form a two-district, 10-team league.
That would leave either the Olathe or Shawnee Mission district in the Sunflower League with the Lawrence schools and Leavenworth, which would still be a strong eight-team league.
Perhaps the Sunflower League would balloon to 10 teams by including St. Thomas Aquinas and either St. James Academy or, less likely, Bishop Miege.
"We don't want to leave anybody high and dry, so we've got to keep the other teams in our league in mind as well," Bechard said.
It's a concern, but fitting the private schools in will be a problem.
Recruiting allegations dog every parochial school in the metro area, from Rockhurst and Aquinas on down. Harsh feelings exist with some of the public schools.
It's problematic, but it's nothing that can't be resolved.
In any case, creating two 10-team leagues makes sense.
And it probably makes the most sense for Olathe and Blue Valley to join forces.
The two districts have a competitive history.
After all, Olathe's schools were part of the EKL until the fall of 1988 along with Blue Valley, which joined the league in 1979.
Meanwhile, Shawnee Mission, later SM North, joined the Sunflower League in 1954.
SM East, SM West, SM South and SM Northwest have never competed in any other league.
From a strictly historical standpoint, it's the most sensible option because none of the five-high school districts wants to split its teams between leagues.
"There's a big picture here," Bechard said. "I know it sounds simple to say, 'Oh yeah, Olathe and Blue Valley would make a great league,' but there's other schools to think about and other factors to consider long range. It won't be an easy discussion."
Rest assured, though, the discussion will take place — and that thinking only strengthens the argument for an Olathe/Blue Valley league, perhaps the Southern Johnson County League, "The SoJo League" or simply "SoJo."
That has a certain panache.
BV Southwest and Olathe West won't start out as Class 6A schools, but within three football cycles it would be an all-6A league.
The identity of the Sunflower League, which has included Lawrence since 1969, also would be retained.
Long term, it's probably the best option for Johnson County athletics.
Would it take some getting used to? Yes. Change always requires adjustment and creates an uproar.
But for the sake of the kids and competition, it's probably what ought to happen. Messages left with Shawnee Mission District Athletic Director Rusty Newman and Olathe District Athletic Director Jim Ater were not immediately returned.