Althoff to leave South Seven Conference beginning in 2023 school year
Althoff is leaving the South Seven Conference.
The move takes effect at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year and leaves the remaining five schools in the league — Carbondale, Marion, Mount Vernon, Centralia and Cahokia — in a bind trying to figure out what to do from a scheduling standpoint next year.
Can conference officials find another school or two to join the league with the Belleville Catholic school leaving? Will the league exist as is with five members next year? Or will the conference dissolve altogether and the remaining five schools look to join other leagues?
Althoff joined the South Seven Conference at the start of the 1993-94 school year after Harrisburg, Benton, West Frankfort and Herrin pulled out of the league to help form the Ohio Division of the River-to-River Conference. Murphysboro and Massac County were other additions.
Belleville Althoff Athletic Director Kathleen Wuller said Friday that the decision to withdraw from the South Seven mostly centers on travel and the costs associated with that.
“Playing on the weekend hasn’t been so much the problem as has been playing contests during the school week,” Wuller said. “Too often, our kids aren’t getting home until midnight or 1 a.m. in the morning when we were playing games in Carbondale and Marion.”
Wuller said Althoff Catholic will, at least for next year, compete as an independent and then explore the possibility of moving into a conference closer to home two years from now. She emphasized that the Crusaders aren’t opposed to playing any of the other South Seven Conference schools in sports other than football, but not twice a year.
From a football scheduling standpoint next school year, Althoff is adding John Burroughs school out of St. Louis, Bridgeport (Red Hill), Granite City, Alton Marquette and Collinsville. Centralia will remain on the schedule for next year, as will Decatur St. Theresa, and Breese Mater Dei.
Wuller said she is presently looking for a Week 9 opponent for next year.
Meanwhile, Marion Athletic Director Ryan Goodisky said there is now a hole in the Wildcats football schedule for Week 4 next year. It was supposed to be a home game with Althoff.
“As an athletic director, you try to stay calm and figure things out,” Goodisky said. “Sometimes, curveballs are thrown your way.”
Goodisky said he and the rest of the league were notified of Althoff’s plans for departure this past spring.
“There are not too many viable options available to us right now.” he said. “We will discuss this further when we get together for a principals and athletic directors meeting in September.”
Carbondale Athletic Director Gwen Poore said Althoff pulling out most definitely impacts the scheduling for athletics next year, most notably football, which requires a minimum of five conference games to receive an automatic bid into the IHSA playoffs. Five league games is not possible with only five teams.
“At this point, we do not know what’s going to happen,” Poore said. “Can we survive with five? We are at a point where we are not sure what direction we should go as a conference. We don’t have a lot of options. Like Ryan said, we will discuss this at our meeting next month.”
Poore added that Herrin has agreed to fill the Week 7 vacancy, but not until 2024 as it is under contract for next year with another opponent. An opening still remains for 2023 for the Terriers.