Column: Detroit Catholic League expansion could have ripple effect in SW Michigan.

Dave Wolf – WSJM Sports Director

A few months ago, the Detroit Catholic League (CHSL), the league made up of entirely Catholic based schools in and around Detroit, announced the league would be expanding starting with the 2023 school year.

The league would be adding six new member schools.  Five of them would be based in nearby Toledo Ohio, and the sixth new member would be Jackson Lumen Christi.

Lumen Christi currently is a member of the Interstate 8 Athletic Conference (I-8), but has had many conference affiliations in their history.  Before the Titans joined the I-8 in 2014, Lumen Christian played in the Capital Area Activities Association, Central Circuit League, Cascades Conference, most of their time has been as an independent.  But Lumen Christi was a football member of the SMAC Conference from 2006-2011.

Lumen Christi joined the old Big 16 West Division with St. Joseph, Benton Harbor, Lakeshore, and Niles in 2006 after Dowagiac left the previous year.   Lumen filled the abandoned Dowagiac league schedule before the conference realigned in 2007.  So, it goes without saying the Titans get around.

Now that the CHSL will include Lumen Christi, it leaves a gaping hole for the Interstate 8.  Which consists of former SMAC Schools Coldwater, Marshall, and Harper Creek.  Also Battle Creek Pennfield, Hastings, Jackson Northwest and Parma Western.  The seven-member league has to have one member play a non-league game in the middle of the season when most schools are in locked conference schedules.  The SMAC had to deal with this for the past few years as Kalamazoo Loy Norrix and Gull Lake have waffled on playing football in the league as the programs continue to struggle.

The SMAC found a temporary solution for a few years when it paired up with the Capital Area Activities Conference, which also has an odd number of schools.  This is how Lakeshore ended up playing a series with DeWitt and St. Joe and Okemos.

The ripple effect of Lumen leaving the I-8 could maybe draw a school like Gull Lake away from the SMAC, a move they have considered previously.    Or it could have the opposite effect.  Drawing I-8 Schools to the SMAC, Wolverine, or even Lakeland Conference.

The Wolverine Conference is technically named the Wolverine “B” Conference.  But as the MHSAA has gone farther and farther away from using A, B, C, and D. for the classifications for individual sports and the enrollment numbers dipping further and further down.   A Class B enrollment number in 1952 when the league was formed would be a Class A school in today’s figures.     Currently there is only one Class A school in the Wolverine Conference and that’s Sturgis.  The most recent enrollment numbers have the Trojans with 920 students, the next closest school is Plainwell at 839.    We know that the bylaws from the Wolverine say that for Sturgis to remain in the league, a percentage of the league’s members would have to allow them stay.  So, adding a school like Harper Creek with an enrollment of 863, or Marshall at 766, even Coldwater at 960 wouldn’t be farfetched.  For comparison St. Joe has an enrollment of 1,001, Lakeshore at 860, and Benton Harbor at 542.

Not counting the travel right now.  The Wolverine could easily add two of those I-8 schools and come back to 10 members.

There is also the burgeoning new Lakeland Conference with Benton Harbor, Buchanan, Brandywine, Berrien Springs and Dowagiac.   Again a conference with an odd number of teams leaving holes in the league schedules.

The 10 member SMAC has a unique problem with Gull Lake and Kalamazoo Loy Norrix choosing not to play football in the league, but remain in all the other league sports.  Reports have said that Gull Lake plans on returning to SMAC football league play when the next schedule rotation happens in 2024.   But nothing is known about whether a similar move with happen with Loy Norrix.   If Loy Norrix does not want to play in the league again, it leaves the SMAC with the same issue as the I-8 and the Lakeland.

Travel is usually the default reason schools give for leaving a conference, we know that it’s not the primary reason, but it is the one that is given AS the primary reason.  Competitiveness is the true default reason, but treated as one of several secondary issues.

When Lumen Christi plays their first CHSL game next fall, they will most likely be the only school in the State of Michigan that has played a conference game along the shores of Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan.     I have a feeling that with the way these conference alignments are changing every year.  It won’t be long until dozens or more schools around the state will be able to say that as well.