Six South Bend-area schools announce formation of new high school athletic conference
SOUTH BEND — Six high schools from five Northern Indiana counties are leaving their respective conferences to form their own starting the 2024-25 school year.
Jimtown, Bremen and John Glenn high schools have all asked to be released from their Northern Indiana Conference affiliation to join LaVille, Knox and Tippecanoe Valley in the yet-to-be-named conference.
The schools made the announcement through a series of press releases Wednesday morning. Glenn is located in Walkerton (St. Joseph County), Jimtown (Elkhart County) and Bremen (Marshall County) have been members of the NIC since 2015.
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Tippecanoe Valley, located in Akron (Kosciusko County), was a member of the Three Rivers Conference while both LaVille (Saint Joseph County) and Knox (Starke County), were members of the Hoosier North Athletic Conference.
Glenn officials said in a statement that the decision was based on high school consolidation in Elkhart — and potentially South Bend schools — and that forming a new conference of like-sized schools “is in the best interest of our students, staff, families and community.”
LaVille officials said in a separate news release that the “new affiliation will open up a wider range of competition opportunities for our student athletes,” while Bremen officials added that the new conference will “provide an excellent competitive environment.”
The NIC currently consists of 12 schools divided into two divisions. The defections will bring that total down to nine. The potential closure of South Bend Clay would reduce it to eight. Other NIC schools are New Prairie, South Bend Washington, South Bend Riley, South Bend Adams, South Bend Saint Joseph, Mishawaka Marian, Penn and Elkhart.
Mishawaka High School was the last team to leave the NIC, joining the Northern Lakes Conference in 2020.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend-area high schools announce formation of new conference
