By Kevin Freeman 

I wanted to expand a bit on the item that appeared in both the Intelligencer Journal and New Era concerning the meeting of Lancaster-Lebanon League officials Wednesday afternoon.

When voting to accept the league’s realignment for the 2010-11 season, two proposals were put to a vote, one that passed and one that did not.

First, the proposal that passed. Ephrata athletic director Tommy Long asked the association to vote to change boys’ lacrosse from two sections to one. Long explained the reasoning behind the proposal.

“This is something the coaches wanted to do this year,” Long said. “We looked at how teams were qualifying for the district playoffs and the feeling was that our teams are so strong that they are beating up on each other, thereby hurting their chances for making the district playoffs.”

 Garden Spot AD Todd Reinouer spoke up against the move, saying that the weaker teams would take a beating. With one section, the weaker teams would be beaten  by more than just the strong teams in their section in the current two-section set-up.

“(In the one-section set-up, the weaker teams) would only have to play the stronger teams once and it would also give those weaker teams six opportunities to schedule six nonleague opponents of equal talent,” Long said. “Having one section would also enable the stronger teams to play other more talented teams.”

Under the one-section league, teams would play 12 league matches and then schedule as many as six nonleague matches.

Ten schools voted for one section, five voted against the measure and nine schools (presumably without lacrosse teams) abstained. 

Note, too, that the league will add Lancaster Mennonite and Cedar Crest in 2010.

The other item, the one defeated by the association, would have moved L-L football from a three-section league to a four-section league.

Greg Fantazzi, the AD at Pequea Valley, made the four-section proposal.

“Going from three to four sections helps the smaller schools be a little more competitive within the league and would give them a chance to win a seciton title,” he said. “It would also allow the smaller schools to find nonleague opponents that would be on the same competition level, so that they could build the program.”

Under his four-section plan, Fantazzi said Section Four would have one less school than the other three sections but that Pequea Valley would be willing to find the extra nonleague games.

“For smaller schools, it’s tough to compete against a team like Manheim Central,” he said. “Our numbers are in the 30s and theirs are in the 60s. That makes it difficult. The idea is to create a little more parity.”

The motion received only three favorable votes. Ephrata and Elizabethtown joined Pequea Valley in voting for the measure. Two schools, Lancaster Mennonite and Lebanon Catholic (schools without football) abstained.

Although the motion was defeated, Fantazzi said he expects to bring the measure up for another vote in the future.

In other decisions made by the association, cross country coaches will not have to designate their top eight runners prior to a meet. Under the new rule, each meet is an open meet whereby all runners from a particular school would “score” if he or she finished high enough. … Realignment is now based on enrollments from grades 7, 8 and 9 instead of grades 8, 9 and 10. … Annville-Cleona was voted the league’s sportsmanship award for the spring. Penn Manor was voted the sportsmanship award for the 2008-09 school year.