(3-31-22) With Lima Sr’s recent announcement about joining the Toledo City League (4 yr agreement). Plus…the all of Toledo Catholic schools joining the Michigan Catholic High School League…what will Lima Central Catholic’s future athletic program opportunities look like –

—stay independent, pursuing a conference membership, possible affiliate memberships in conferences (ex: both soccer teams joining the Western Ohio Soccer League) or consider out-of the box solutions.

LCC Athletic Director Mike Rumschlag sent SSN an email response on all of the above possibilities.

LCC desires to be in a conference.  We believe in the benefits of conference play enhances programs, creates a positive high school experience for students, and allows for individual/team/school relationships to be developed.  This does not include the financial benefits that are offered by being associated with a conference.  

Mike Rumschlag

To date:

1)  LCC has inquired about conference expansion to the Blanchard Valley Conference.  We were told the member schools are not interested in expansion (regardless of the recent departures of three schools in three years).  This has been approached in previous years also, as LCC played BVC schools (minus two) during the COVID season.  

2) LCC has inquired about conference expansion to the Sandusky Bay Conference for football only, as we play three teams from that conference.  We were told no due to travel restrictions.

3) LCC was considered for conference expansion to the MAC in the early 2000’s but they decided to go with different schools.  Nothing (other than a few side discussions between AD’s) has formally been inquired.  

4) LCC administration has had conversations about football-only conference affiliation, as well as starting our own conference.  

5) LCC HAS NOT but is considering contacting OHSAA to express challenges of being an independent (not by choice) and schools breaking scheduled contracts.  LCC had two football contracts broken (due to conference expansion) and as a result LCC has had to schedule a team from Canada.  This depreciates the athletic experience for our student-athletes.  

All this to say, LCC would welcome the opportunity to once again be a part of a local conference but the unfortunate reality is that area schools are not interested in us being a part (not sure of the reasoning-but have theories).  We will continue to pursue open doors and explore all options to provide the best educational experience for our students.  

The elephant in the room for LCC…the majority of public school conferences are not interested in adding a private school as a member, especially one that wins a lot of games and conference titles. That is the reason the T-Birds were asked to leave the Northwest Conference several years ago.

One first year conference has been an exception to that rule…the Three Rivers Conference (TRC).

The TRC has 8 members from four different conferences and that includes two private schools, Lehman Catholic and Troy Christian.

LCC now has to wait until some schools or conferences reach out to them.