Will no longer seek to join L-L League, will remain in Ches-Mont League

This just in …

Octorara has withdrawn its application to join the Lancaster-Lebanon League.

L-L League executive president Dick Balderston confirmed on Tuesday that he received a letter from the Octorara School District last Friday, asking for its application not to be voted on.

Octorara, which is located in Atglen in Chester County, will remain in the Ches-Mont League.

The meeting for the vote on Octorara’s application was set for Nov. 18, but word around the L-L League was that Octorara was not going to receive nearly enough votes to get in.

Octorara met with L-L League officials last April, and originally they were hoping for a vote from the L-L League last May. That didn’t happen. And earlier this fall, the L-L League announced that it would vote on the matter on Nov. 18 – along with hearing from Reading High School on whether or not it was leaving the L-L Football League for the Inter-County League in Berks.

Reading was recently admitted into the Inter-County League for football, but Balderston said he has still not received a letter from Reading asking out of the L-L League. He said they have until the end of the year to do so.

But Octorara will not be coming in, which will leave one section of L-L League football with an odd number of teams.

If the league goes into the 2010 season as is, there would be 23 teams, and one section would have to play four non-league games – which aren’t exactly easy to schedule for, say, Week 7.

No word yet on which section would have the odd number of teams; probably not Section 1.

In the next realignment cycle, Elizabethtown would be bumped up to Section 1 and Lampeter-Strasburg would be bumped up to Section 2. The largest school in Section 3 at that time would be Donegal.