2nd Time Story Update: 4-17-23

Crawfordsville Community School Corporation
Board of Education – Regular Meeting
Thursday, March 9th, 2023

Story UPDATED: 4-17-23

Speaking on behalf of Lebanon: It is very sad that people use social media inaccurately for various reason and disappointing and frustrating to all involved. The Sagamore Conference has a long standing tradition with 8 outstanding schools who work extremely well together and have a tremendous amount of respect for each other.   If any changes were to occur within the conference it would take place in a professional and appropriate manner, following the guidelines and procedures outlined in the Sagamore Athletic Handbook, and with an agreement upon all the schools and individuals involved.  The story was inaccurate and not only unfair to the Sagamore Conference Schools but several schools outside of the conference.   I anticipate if any changes were to take place with the Sagamore Conference, the process, explanation and truth would be announced when and if this officially occurs.

Sincerely,

Phil Levine, CAA, Athletic Director/Assistant Principal, Lebanon High School

Lebanon’s statement represents Danville’s response as well.

Aimee P. Harvey, RAA, Athletic Director, Danville Community High School

Frankfort also is in agreement and support the statement from Lebanon.

Ed Niehaus, RAA, Athletic Director, Frankfort Hot Dogs

“Western Boone is in full agreement and support of the statement from Lebanon.”

​Jeremy Dexter, CAA Athletic Director Western Boone Jr.-Sr. High School

North Montgomery supports Lebanon’s statement.

Matt Merica, Athletic Director, North Montgomery High School

Same for TW…we are in full support of Lebanon’s initial statement.

Scott Knapp, CAA, Athletic Director, Tri-West High School

Greencastle supports the statement from Phil Levine at Lebanon HS Media continues to disappoint in their reporting

Doug Greenlee, CAA,Athletic Director, Greencastle High School

ORIGINAL POSTING BELOW

(4-15-23) A tweet today from a very reliable source (see above) announced that the Sagamore Conference will drop three current members, Danville, Lebanon and Tri-West.

Editor’s Note: Be sure to open the tweet to see comments on the issue.

According to a history of the conference…Danville and Tri-West joined the conference in the 1999-2000 school year. Lebanon was a charter member back in 1966.

The trend seems to be for conferences to ‘dump‘ members from competing…just this past week the North Central Conference (NCC) eliminated two members in an 8-2 vote …Harrison and McCutheon.

Joint statement from principals and athletic directors at McCutcheon and Harrison

We had hoped other conference member schools would have voted differently, so while the result is disheartening, our future efforts will now turn towards reviewing and evaluating conference affiliation that will best meet the needs of our student athletes and school communities.

In December of 2021 the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference (MIC) voted out two members Carmel and Center Grove, both are now independents.

The vote was unanimous by the remaining MIC members to oust both schools.

The trend in this direction to remove members seems to be something we will continue to see. It leads to hard feelings and future relationships. The methods vary on how it is being done and circumstances that led to it are not always the same and for the schools being removed it is a major issue that effects those schools for several years…who does it hurt the most? Student-athletes.

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