.png)
Valley will not compete in conference in 2023-24
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation acknowledged in a media release dated April 10 that it was in the process of leaving the Three Rivers Conference and forming a new conference with five other schools, but the TRC principals voted 11 days later to remove them, effective at the end of this school year.
In a letter to Valley administrators dated April 10 and provided to RTC, Wabash athletic director Floyd McWhirt, who also holds the title of TRC Premier, said that Valley’s notice on March 31 “did not meet the two-year standard for notification to leave the TRC as per the constitution.”
It then gave Valley three options:
Finish two years (through 2024-25) as part of the TRC.
If Valley leaves for the 2024-25 school year, pay each remaining TRC school $1,000 by May 5.
If Valley chooses neither option, they will be voted out, effective at the end of 2022-23.
Valley’s reply in writing, dated April 19, said that it stood firm on its request to leave after the 2023-24 school year and added, “If TVHS is voted out of the Three Rivers Conference, contracts with TRC schools should be maintained by playing through non-conference competition.”
The TRC then replied by saying that Valley had chosen option three, and the nine other principals in the TRC voted 8-0-1 to remove Valley from the TRC at the end of 2022-23.
The TRC did not list the vote of each individual principal.
“There shall be a two-year notification of intended departure from the conference by a school seeking to leave the TRC,” according to Article III, Section 4 of the TRC constitution. “A monetary penalty of $1,000 to each member school shall be paid if a school desires to leave earlier.”
In addition, Article III, Section 3 of the TRC constitution says that schools may be removed from the conference “by a super majority vote (7) of the other members.”
WHME’s Chuck Freeby reported on March 31 that Valley had sent a letter to the TRC to tell them that it was exiting the conference. Bremen, John Glenn and LaVille reported on their social media accounts on April 5 that it was forming a six-team conference, but Valley did not publicly acknowledge the news until five days later.
“Tippecanoe Valley believes this new affiliation will open up a wider range of competition for our student-athletes and allow for greater development across different sports teams,” the school said in the release. “We believe this is in the best interests of our student athletes and all the stakeholders in our community.”
In addition to Valley, Bremen, John Glenn and LaVille, the conference, which has yet to be named, will include Jimtown and Knox.
“The TRC members would like to thank you for your years of membership with the TRC, and we wish you the best in your future conference,” McWhirt said in his second letter to Valley administrators dated April 21.
McWhirt then sent out a media release on Monday saying that Valley was out.
The TRC is the only conference of which Valley has ever been a member.
“Tippecanoe Valley has been a member of the TRC since 1974,” McWhirt said in the media release. “Their membership has brought great competition and rivalries throughout the years. All the members of the TRC wish Tippecanoe Valley the best in their future conference.”
Dropping Valley leaves the TRC with nine schools. Conference membership had stayed unchanged since Peru and Maconaquah joined in 2015.
Valley has already won outright or shared conference titles in football, girls basketball and boys basketball in 2022-23.
The TRC was formed in 1972. The four original schools were Triton, Caston, North Miami and Northfield.
Comments