Palmyra has until April 16 to apply for admission into L-L League; plans are in motion
JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
The Lancaster-Lebanon League could be expanding.
Palmyra, the only senior high school in Lebanon County that is not part of the L-L League, has contacted L-L League officials about applying for a spot in the L-L League, starting with the 2010-2011 sports season.
Palmyra, which currently competes in the Mid-Penn Conference, has until April 16 to submit an application to the L-L League.
“That rumor is true,” Palmyra athletic director Brian Weidler confirmed. “We are taking a good, long hard look at it. We have a couple of meetings coming up to determine which way our school district will go. Hopefully we should know something in early February.”
“Palmyra called in December and asked what the deadline would be to apply,” L-L League executive president Dick Balderston said. “They also asked where they would be slotted in the different sections in each sport.”
The L-L League aligns all of its sections in all of its sports based on enrollment figures. And the league is currently sifting through future enrollment numbers to set up the sections in every sport for the 2010-2011 sports year.
The official enrollment numbers are due out in December, 2009.
Balderston said he supplied Palmyra with figures based on current enrollments, and where Palmyra would slot in right now. Those numbers will very likely change when 2010-2011 enrollment figures are released.
According to the current figures, Palmyra would likely slot into Section 3 in most of the L-L League sports.
Since Palmyra is a member of the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13, it wouldn’t need a majority vote to join the L-L League.
“It would be a cursory vote,” Balderston said, “not a majority vote.”
Bottom line: If Palmyra wants in, its in.
This is at least the third time Palmyra has contacted the L-L League about becoming a member. And it looks like this might be its most serious attempt yet.
The move would benefit the L-L League as well, particularly in football.
Reading High will leave the L-L League after the 2009 season, leaving a gaping hole in Section 1.
As of now, without a replacement for Reading, one of the three sections would have an odd number of teams, meaning that section would be left scrambling for a fourth non-league game, starting with the 2010-2011 cycle.
“The best pro for Palmyra coming in, with Reading pulling out for football, is that it would allow us to stick with eight teams in three sections of football,” Balderston said. “That’s the biggest pro. And Palmyra is the only Lebanon County school that is not in the L-L League, so if they do come in, that would give our Lebanon County teams more competition. So that’s another pro.”
Any cons?
“The only downside is that in sports where we have 24 schools, Palmyra would make it an odd number,” Balderston said. “We’d have an odd number of teams in one of the sections.”
But Balderston said the league would gladly welcome the move.
“I think Palmyra coming into the league would be a good fit,” he said. “We’d have no problem with that at all.”
Balderston did add that he’d prefer Palmyra applies to join in all sports. If it applies in all sports, because of its membership in the IU, Palmyra is in. But if Palmyra only applies to join, say, football, they’d need a majority vote to get in.
Octorara ran into that problem last year when it flirted with applying to join the L-L League in a few certain sports, including football. When it found out it wouldn’t get the necessary votes in those particular sports, Octorara pulled the plug.
The L-L League Board of Control meets on April 16. If Palmyra does indeed apply in all sports before then, the association would vote — albeit a cursory vote — in May. And when the enrollment numbers come out in December, Palmyra would be in the L-L League for the start of the 2010 sports season.
