Talks of Berks, L-L merger resume

Creation of a 37-team, five-section league could become a reality by the fall of 2022

A few months after initial talks for a potential merger between the Berks and Lancaster-Lebanon Leagues surfaced early in 2018 the issue was officially put to rest when the L-L voted to table the proposal.

Official talks may have ended but the idea didn’t die.

“We never (really) put it to bed,” Ron Kennedy, executive director of the Lancaster-Lebanon League, said Thursday after the two leagues put out a joint press release announcing that talks are back on.

Representatives from both leagues will meet later this month with a merger for the 2022 season as a target.

The mere fact that the leagues publicly announced that they are “entering discussions” indicates there’s real momentum behind forming a massive, 37-team league.

“It’s certainly a possibility, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Kennedy said.

Berks officials initiated the merger talks, and there were some positive sentiments among coaches and some administrators around the Lancaster-Lebanon League.

The timing didn’t work, Kennedy said, because the L-L had just gone through several realignments and league officials wanted to see how those worked out before taking another leap. The league switches adjusted divisional alignments for 2019 and is moving from three sections to four for 2020.

“There was some momentum to make (this) happen last time, (but) the timing wasn’t quite right for it,” Kennedy said.

The most critical step in formation of a new league will be division alignment. It will likely end up as a five-section league, with potentially eight schools in the two largest divisions and seven in the smaller divisions.

Enrollment will be the starting point for formation of those divisions, Kennedy said, but travel and competitive balance will also be considered.

The L-L, for example, has allowed struggling programs, such as Lebanon, to play down in the past. Lebanon, which was classified 6A by the PIAA, played in Section 3 last season, along with two Class 5A schools, two 4As and one 3A.

A potential five-section league might have Reading High and Gov. Mifflin join Wilson in Section 1, along with Manheim Township, Hempfield and other 6A schools.

Exeter, which is 5A, and Berks Catholic, which is 4A, might join a Section 2 that includes 5As such as Manheim Central, Warwick and Cocalico.

“Perhaps people will find competition more suitable for their level (with more schools),” Hamburg AD and BCIAA football chairman Aaron Menapace said.

There are a lot of moving parts, what with schools being reclassified for the upcoming 2020 and 2021 football seasons and with the PIAA’s newly implemented “success formula,” which will bump successful program that include multiple transfers up a class.

Travel for some schools will increase under a merger; some will complain about being placed in a more competitive section.

Many Lancaster-Lebanon League coaches are unhappy with the league-mandated crossover games that were implemented following realignment in 2018.

The Berks League, meanwhile, has issues of its own with just six schools slated for Section 1 in 2020 and seven in Section 2.

That will lead to Section 1 schools needing five non-league opponents, which can be difficult to find in football, especially after Week 4 when most schools are locked into league schedules.

“Scheduling is very difficult for teams that have mid- and late-season byes,” Menapace said. “If we can get in a situation where people don’t have those byes, that would be really advantageous.”

In recent years there has been a great disparity in Section 2, where Berks Catholic and Wyomissing have dominated programs at Kutztown, Schuylkill Valley and Hamburg.

“More schools (in the league) provide a better chance for balanced schedules,” said AnnvilleCleona AD Tommy Long, the football chairman of the LancasterLebanon League.

Long and Kennedy said that by starting talks now there’s plenty of time to make the merger happen by 2022. Kennedy hopes plans can be finalized by the spring of 2021.

Long said that both sides are better prepared to make it work now.

“We’re trying to give it the best opportunity to be successful,” Long said. “It didn’t work out last time. This will be the best opportunity to make this work.”