Nevada, other schools look at forming new conference

The Southwest Conference will be history after this year; and the Central Ozark Conference, Big 8, Show-Me West and West Central Conferences have all turned down Nevada's request for membership, leaving Nevada looking for a new home.

The Southwest Conference, which Nevada has been a member of since it was organized, began to unravel when Webb City announced earlier this year that it was applying for membership in the Central Ozark Conference so it would not have to look so hard to opponents in football.

Then, Carthage and Neosho decided to follow Webb City's lead, leaving Nevada and McDonald County to find new conferences.

"We applied to all of the surrounding conferences and they all told us no," Craig Noah, Nevada R-5 superintendent, said Thursday afternoon.

However, Noah is hopeful that something can be worked out that will give Nevada a conference to call home in the future.

"There are a lot of shake-ups going on in conferences in western Missouri and recent events have left other area schools concerned about their conferences," he said.

He said that according to a story in the Lamar Democrat, some of Lamar's school board members are interested in leaving the Big 8 conference.

Noah said that the Show-Me West Conference, which Butler and El Dorado Springs belong to, has had several schools announce that they will be leaving the conference next year. El Dorado Springs, which has not been in a conference in recent years, was planning to play their first season in that conference beginning in the fall of 2008.

Thursday afternoon, Noah reported that he had met with superintendents from Lamar, Butler, El Dorado Springs and Warsaw Wednesday; and because of shake-ups in other Western Missouri conferences, there is a possibility of some of these schools joining together to form a new conference. Buffalo has also been invited if they are interested.

The superintendents, principals and athletic directors from these schools are planning to meet in Nevada on Oct. 3 to discuss the options.

"We are going to try to make a decision within the next two weeks," he said.

Noah said that Nevada has a self-imposed deadline of Oct. 30, so they can proceed with scheduling for next year.

He said a concern of some schools is that Nevada would be much larger than the other member schools, however, Noah does not think that cannot be overcome.

They already play larger schools in their conference and playing a larger school will help prepare them for district competition.

He said that he thinks it benefited Nevada's football team when it came to district play-offs to have played against schools like Webb City and Carthage.

Nevada will still have an opportunity to schedule games with several larger schools to get ready for their district games.

In basketball and other sports these schools all compete very well with Nevada, he said.

Noah said that his goal is not to just come up with an athletic conference, but a conference that will provide conference opportunities for the member schools in music, art and academics.

"We will talk about football and basketball, but we will also spend time talking about these activities," he said.

Noah said that where he is from, those things are all available and he thinks that having all conference choirs, bands, art shows and other activities would enrich all of the member schools.

Nevada will be the strongest academic school in the conference and we will be able to help the other schools in a lot of ways, he said.

"You've got to see the big picture," he said.