Berks joining L-L for 37-team league
13 Berks members admitted in 19-5 vote
What once was viewed as a Hail Mary turned into a big score Wednesday for the Berks Football League when its 13 schools were admitted to the Lancaster-Lebanon League as associate members.
Less than 30 months after seeing a similar bid stall, the Berks schools were accepted by a 19-5 vote, with one abstention.
They will join Wilson as part of a massive 37-team league for the start of the 2022 season.
“It looks like we’ve created a new football league — a super league,” said board of control president Bill Giovino and the principal of Lebanon High School. “It’s impressive.”
Administrators from each league believe the enlarged L-L, which will likely take shape as a five-division setup, will alleviate scheduling issues and improve competitive balance.
League directors voted only on the acceptance of the Berks schools and not on a specific divisional alignment. Details regarding league makeup will be determined in the coming months, said L-L executive director Ron Kennedy.
Berks League teams applied for associate membership in 2018 but the move was tabled by an 18-4 vote (with four abstentions). The Lancaster Lebanon League was facing realignment decisions in all of its sports at the time and league directors felt the timing wasn’t right.
Hopes were rekindled in recent months and league directors from both sides issued a joint statement in January stating that talks had resumed.
The newly shaped league is expected to include seven teams apiece in each of the three largest-enrollment divisions and eight in each of the two smallest. Each of the five divisions likely would include two or more Berks teams.
The divisions are expected to be structured primarily by enrollment, with Reading High joining Wilson and five other Class 6A members in Section 1.
Gov. Mifflin, Exeter and Muhlenberg would fit into Section 2, along with four other Class 5A schools: Conestoga Valley, Elizabethtown, Lebanon and Warwick.
Daniel Boone, Fleetwood and Twin Valley likely would be placed in Section 3, along with other Class 5A schools.
Section 4 would include Conrad Weiser and other Class 4A schools, such as Lampeter-Strasburg and Donegal.
Hamburg and Schuylkill Valley, both Class 3A for the upcoming PIAA classification cycle, would be part of Section 5, along with the rest of the league’s smallest schools.
Schools will have the option of requesting to move to a higher division, a request that will be granted only if a school in that higher division is willing to move down.
That’s likely to happen in several instances to ease competitive balance.
The move means a return to
the L-L for Gov. Mifflin, Muhlenberg and Reading High, each of which were previously associate members, as Wilson has been since 1975.
The move to the L-L is expected to be a boon for Berks athletic directors, who have found it increasingly difficult to fill their schedules since Pottsville and Blue Mountain left the league several years ago.
That left just seven schools in Berks 1 and six in Berks 2.
With just five league opponents in a six-team division, schools are forced to find five non-league games. That’s extremely difficult after the opening month of the season when most schools are committed to league schedules.
Berks Catholic, Daniel Boone and Reading High each have open dates on their 2020 schedules.
The move sparks the greatest change in Berks football history — and for the L-L, as well.
The Inter-County League — or I-C, as it was known for years — was formed in 1957. Wyomissing and West Reading were the only Berks teams in the initial setup.
When Muhlenberg replaced Lansdale Catholic in 1981 it made the I-C an all-Berks league for the first time.
The Berks League reached its zenith in 2010 when Reading High left the Lancaster-Lebanon League and joined, giving the league 16 teams for the first time.
That number dwindled quickly over the next several years, starting with the merger of Central Catholic and Holy Name in 2011.
The last major change in the Lancaster-Lebanon League came in 1975, when Wilson and Muhlenberg joined the league and it expanded from two to three sections.
The L-L debuted in 1972 with 17 teams spread across two divisions.
The league switched to four, six-teams sections for the 2020 season.