Red Bud staying in Cahokia Conference

Posted February 01, 2016 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Staff Writer

Chester's possible return to the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference is apparently off the table as Red Bud officials announced last Friday that Red Bud is staying in the Cahokia Conference.

Both Red Bud High School Principal Dustin Nail and Red Bud District 132 Superintendent Jonathan Tallman confirmed the decision to the Herald Tribune last week.

"After looking at everything, we felt staying in the Cahokia Conference would be the best place for us," Nail said. "The River-to-River is a great conference, but looking at where our kids and programs are, that brought us to the decision that was made."

The SIRR had extended an invitation to both Chester and Red Bud, with the catch that both had to agree to move as the conference would not accept one without the other. A deadline for a decision was March 1.

Chester's options are now to either remain in the Black Diamond Conference or accept a separate invitation to join the Cahokia Conference.

Chester District 139 Board of Education President Mitch Hammel told the newspaper last Friday that the board still intends to discuss the Cahokia Conference invitation during its regular meeting on Feb. 18.

"One of the positive sides of the (SIRR's) invitation was the idea of Chester," Nail said of the possibility of Chester joining the Cahokia Conference. "I think we're close by and comparable communities and we like promoting that natural rivalry.

"We think it's a good fit for our athletes to compete against a school like that. We would be excited to have them as a part of the Cahokia Conference."

A charter member of the SIRR, Chester left the conference for the Black Diamond in 2010 in a switch with Carterville.

The SIRR's invitation stated that, if both schools agreed to move, they would be placed in the Mississippi Division, with Carterville moved to the Ohio Division.

But both schools had to agree to make the change, as the conference would not accept one without the other.

"The media knows with the letters that came out that was part of the stipulation," said Jeremy Blechle, Chester High School football coach and dean of students at CHS. "The conference deal, as far as the school is concerned, all levels have to be considered collectively as a group.

"I think Chester, no matter what conference we're in, we're just fortunate to be part of a conference."

On Jan. 21, the Cahokia Conference met and formally accepted Salem as a member. Dupo is leaving the conference for the Prairie State Conference for football only in 2017.

The conference also approved giving Red Bud the option of moving from the Mississippi Division (large schools) to the Kaskaskia Division (small schools) for all sports except football.

Terry Ryker, SIRR president and Herrin High School principal, told the Herald Tribune that there is always an option to see what schools may be interested in the conference, but the conference would not add teams simply to add teams.

"It will have to better the new teams and the conference because we feel our conference is pretty good right now," he said.

Ryker said the next meeting of conference representatives will be around Easter and the realignment topic could be discussed again then.

"We'll probably wait and see right now," he said. "If we need to meet before our regularly-scheduled conference meeting, we'll do so."

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