Bureau Valley on the move, will join Lincoln Trail in 2024-25

MANLIUS – The Bureau Valley Storm will have a new place to call home next year.

The Lincoln Trail Conference has approved Bureau Valley for league membership beginning with the 2024-25 school year. The Bureau Valley board previously gave its approval.

With the change in dynamics of the Three Rivers Conference and Bureau Valley’s declining enrollment, superintendent Jason Stabler said the Lincoln Trail was the best fit for the Storm.

“It’s just about giving our kids the best opportunity to compete and have a good experience,” he said. “We absolutely loved the TRAC and the relationships we built over the years. Unfortunately, as the TRAC has evolved, a lot of those schools have moved on. The dynamic and environment has changed in the TRAC. It’s just gone in a different direction.”

“It’s just about giving our kids the best opportunity to compete and have a good experience. We absolutely loved the TRAC and the relationships we built over the years. Unfortunately, as the TRAC has evolved, a lot of those schools have moved on. The dynamic and environment has changed in the TRAC. It’s just gone in a different direction.”

—  Jason Stabler, BV superintendent

Storm baseball coach Ryan Schisler grew up in Morrison, a charter member of Three Rivers, but he knows it’s not the same old Three Rivers.

“The TRAC is the only conference I’ve ever known and I’ve loved being a part of it,” he said. “However, the conference has evolved tremendously from what I knew as a student-athlete and looking around at the enrollments of member schools I think the move makes a lot of sense, as we’ve seen a few others have to make a move as well.

“I know our administrators and board members did a ton of work to ensure the move would be in the best interest of our kids, and I’m excited for the opportunity to go compete in the LTC.”

BV football coach Mat Pistole, whose Storm would play in the newly formed Lincoln Trail-Prairieland Conference, likes the move.

“It’s a great move for Bureau Valley athletics,” he said. “At the end of the day, high school athletics are about learning lifelong lessons, building everlasting relationships and having positive experiences that can’t be replicated or replaced. I think this move has great potential to improve these things for our kids. The Lincoln Trail has a long and proud history and we are looking forward to competing for years to come.”

Stabler said Bureau Valley has been transparent with the Three Rivers throughout this process about its change of course and wanted to give it a years notice.

Bureau Valley will be switching places with Mercer County, which will be leaving the Lincoln Trail to join the Three Rivers next year. Bureau Valley, which shows an enrollment of 319 by the IHSA, but projected to drop to 250 soon, would become the second largest school in the Lincoln Trail. It has two co-ops for all sports with an average enrollment of 215.

Other teams/co-ops in the league are Abingdon-Avon (269), Annawan (92), West Central (212), Ridgewood (237), Galva (129), Knoxville (328), Monmouth United (246), Princeville (210), ROWVA-Williamsfield (275), Stark County (222) and Wethersfield (143). Ridgewood is the co-op of Cambridge and AlWood.

“It’s a great conference,” Stabler said. “We’ve got a great relationship with a lot of those schools in nonconference play already. We’re comfortable with a lot of those schools. We’re excited with the opportunity to see how we kind of fit in that conference.”

The Lincoln Trail has merged with the Prairieland Conference this fall to form the new football league divided into “small school” and “large school” divisions. Enrollments range from 175 (Astoria South Fulton) to 275 (ROWVA-Williamsfield) in the small school division to 140 (Hamilton) to 584 (Macomb) in the large school side.

A member of the Three Rivers since 1999, Bureau Valley will become the fifth school in six years to leave the conference, following Amboy in 2017, Fulton in 2021 and St. Bede in 2023. Morrison will also depart next year, moving to the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference to be reunited with Amboy and Fulton.

The Three Rivers will be down to 12 members next year, only three of which are original members - Erie-Prophetstown, Newman and Riverdale. The remaining members are imports from the former NCIC (Hall, Kewanee, Princeton, Mendota) and Olympic (Mercer County, Monmouth-Roseville, Orion, Rockridge, Sherrard) conferences.

Stabler said Bureau Valley would like to maintain its relationships with the Three Rivers schools for future nonconference games.

Bureau Valley also looked at the NUIC, but when the Lincoln Trail reached out after Mercer County’s announced departure, it turned its search there.