Southeast joins TRL by unanimous vote

The Three Rivers League unanimously approved membership for Southeast High School of Cherokee in a meeting held Thursday morning. Southeast's including will bring league membership up to 12 schools beginning with the 2017-18 school year. Because that year will be the second of the current two-year football scheduling cycle, football will remain in the Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League next season before moving into the TRL in 2018-19.

Southeast is currently a Class 3A school with 182 students, which would make it the Three Rivers' largest school if it were already a member. Currently, the largest school is Northeast, also a Class 3A school, with 160 students.

The Three Rivers League's membership has always fluctuated. Only three members have been in the league constantly since it was founded from what remained of the Linn League in 1967-68. Uniontown, Pleasanton and Marmaton Valley have been members the entire time while charter member Jayhawk-Linn was a member of the Pioneer League -- also as a founding member -- from 2007-08 to 2011-12.

Membership in the TRL has been as low as eight schools to as high as 15. Current members aside from those already mentioned are Altoona-Midway (joined 2005-06), Chetopa (2007-08), Crest (1975-76), Oswego (2004-05), St. Paul (2007-08) and Yates Center, which rejoined the league this year after two decades in the Tri-Valley League. Northeast joined the TRL in 2012-13.

Northeast and Jayhawk-Linn are Class 3A schools. Marmaton Valley, Uniontown, Pleasanton, Oswego and Yates Center are 2A schools while Midway, Chetopa, Crest and St. Paul compete in Class 1A.

In a press release issued on the district's website, USD 247 Superintendent Brad Miner said that enrollment is eventually expected to decline and "level off at around 120 students. While making the transition to being a smaller district, we are using a 'Students First' approach and that includes doing what is best for our students in extracurricular activities."

Southeast, a charter member of the CNC, has 25 to 70 percent fewer students than any of the other public high schools in the league (Colgan is a parochial school and is the only one smaller than Southeast). Miner said that the gap was expected to continue to widen.

"In several team sports, opposing schools routinely have rosters 50% larger than ours, and occasionally twice our size," Miner said.

Lower participation levels in the sports Southeast offers has made it difficult for the school to field teams at sub-varsity levels at both the middle-school and high-school levels.

"Lower participation levels makes it a challenge for Southeast to fill all of these rosters in most sports, often forcing students to 'play up' before they are ready, which has driven some students away from those activities," Miner said.

The Three Rivers' unanimous vote "tells us that they understand our situation," Miner said. "Many of them can relate as they too have experienced changes in their enrollment. Plus, we fill a need for them. The TRL has six smaller schools, but only has five larger high schools that average 140 students -- similar to where we believe SHS will eventually be."

Southeast expects that it will have a "blend" of scheduling with TRL and CNC schools the next school year but be fully transitioned into the TRL by 2018-19. Like Northeast has, Southeast expects to continue playing some CNC schools in non-league games.

Enrollment comparision of current members of the CNC and Three Rivers leagues.

(a) -- Competes in Class 4A-Division II in sports in which that class is split.

(b) -- Plays eight-man football

(c) -- Competes in Class 1A-Division I in sports in which that class is split.

(d) -- Competes in Class 1A-Division II in sports in which that class is split.

Three Rivers League schools and they year they joined the league.

* -- Marked schools are members of the TRL for the second time