TRAC Catholic schools meet with Detroit Catholic League officials
Oct. 26—Representatives from the five Catholic-school members of the Three Rivers Athletic Conference took the next step toward possible future membership in the Detroit Catholic League at a meeting in Toledo on Monday.
"It was a productive, successful meeting," St. Francis de Sales athletic director Justin Edgell said. "But, we still need to take several more steps before we make the decision on what conference we end up joining."
St. Francis, fellow all-boys school St. John's Jesuit, Central Catholic (co-educational), and all-girls schools Notre Dame Academy and St. Ursula Academy are each currently TRAC members that will have no league alignment after the 2022-23 school year.
Earlier this year, four public-school members of the TRAC — Clay, Findlay, Fremont Ross, and Whitmer — all applied to join an expanding Northern Lakes League, and were accepted. That association will begin in the 2023-24 school year.
The TRAC's five Catholic-school members, along with public-school TRAC member Lima Senior, also each applied to join in the NLL expansion, but were denied acceptance by vote of the existing NLL member schools.
Edgell said the TRAC's Catholic school representatives intend to meet again with officials from the DCL — including director Vic Michaels and associate director Mike Evoy — sometime before Thanksgiving.
Edgell said further details of the possible merger would need to be addressed, but that a final decision to join or not join could be made before the end of the year, or by mid-January.
The DCL has 27 member schools, ranging from small to large enrollments.
Projected as probable partners with the TRAC's Catholic schools would be the largest five Detroit area Catholic schools that have boys sports, including one co-ed institution, and four other all-girls schools.
The co-ed school is Orchard Lake St. Mary's. The four all-boys schools are Detroit Catholic Central, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice, Warren De La Salle, and Detroit U-D Jesuit. The all-girls schools are Bloomfield Hills Marian, Farmington Hills Mercy, Warren Regina, and Wixom St. Catherine of Siena.
These Toledo and Detroit groupings would allow for eight team leagues for most boys and girls sports that the respective schools offer.
Some sports, however, are not offered in the same seasons in Ohio and Michigan, so league alignments for those sports would not be possible.
The sports of football, volleyball, cross country, boys soccer, and girls golf in the fall, basketball, ice hockey, wrestling, bowling, and boys swimming in the winter, and baseball, softball, track and field, and lacrosse in the spring, all match up between Ohio and Michigan.
Those sports that do not match seasons include tennis, boys golf, girls soccer, and girls swimming.
Lima Senior is currently in discussions with Toledo Public School administrators seeking to join the six-member Toledo City Athletic League, which currently includes TPS schools Bowsher, Rogers, Scott, Start, Waite, and Woodward.
With current NLL member Maumee having opted to join the Northern Buckeye Conference, the NLL presently has 11 members set for the 2023-24 school year.
That group includes Anthony Wayne, Bowling Green, Napoleon, Northview, Perrysburg, Southview, and Springfield, plus the four incoming schools from the TRAC.
First Published October 25, 2021, 3:43pm
