Berkshire League explores realignment as several schools weigh moves to other leagues

The Nonnewaug wrestling team captured the school's 24th Berkshire League crown by finishing in a tie for second at the Berkshire Valley Wrestling Championships on Saturday. The conference title is based on points from the regular season and the tournament. (Steve Barlow/For Hearst Connecticut Media) After several of its member schools initiated conversations to join other athletic conferences, the Berkshire League formed a committee on Oct. 16 to explore options for realignment with the Naugatuck Valley League and the North Central Connecticut Conference."Recently, several schools have expressed concern over the challenges that many of the league schools face in fielding full schedules for varsity and JV squads as well as a full slate of sports offerings among all of the schools," Berkshire League president and Housatonic principal Ian Strever said. "Schools have also expressed concern over competitive balance, and taken collectively, these concerns have led us to a more concerted inquiry into alignment with nearby leagues." The league is comprised of eight full-member schools from Litchfield County: Gilbert (Winsted), Housatonic (Falls Village), Lakeview (Litchfield), Nonnewaug (Woodbury), Northwestern (Winsted), Shepaug (Washington, Conn.) Terryville and Thomaston. This school year, ACES at Chase (Waterbury) is competing within the Berkshire League on a limited trial basis, as well.The Berkshire League was founded in 1960 with six teams: Thomaston, Wamogo, Litchfield, Washington, Woodbury and Southbury. Litchfield and Wamogo have since merged to form Lakeview, while Washington and Woodbury later joined other towns to form the regional districts that operate Shepaug and Nonnewaug, respectively.Nonnewaug principal Mykal Kuslis said his school contacted the Naugatuck Valley League about the process required to become a member of the league, because it wants to explore all its options for providing a more competitive environment for its student-athletes."We are in contact with the NVL," Kuslis said. "We are aware of their deadlines. We are trying at this point to keep all options open knowing that there might be some other changes in the BL happening."I will just say that there are multiple schools in the league who are looking, I think for better opportunities for their students, and we are also kind of in that same boat. We are continuing to keep our options open just to define avenues we think are best for our students in terms of athletics, competition and opportunity."Lakeview athletic director Jim Parker gave a presentation to the Regional School District No. 20 Board of Education on Oct. 15, according to the official minutes of that meeting. He presented reasons why the board should consider completing a formal membership application to the NVL by Dec. 1.In a five-page document from Parker's presentation linked to the district's website, four potential advantages were listed for exploring a move to the NVL: 1. Reliable level schedules, 2. Stronger athlete development, 3. Postseason readiness, 4. NVL conference structure. This reasoning was supported by results of a poll of 19 Lakeview coaches."Coaches report uneven varsity competition and frequent sub-varsity cancellations or lack of offerings," the report said. "This reduces meaningful game repetitions for developing athletes and can leave teams less prepared for the pace and physicality of CIAC State Tournament play."The report went on to say that 68% of the Lakeview coaches (13 out of 19) said the Berkshire League provides uneven varsity competition while 84% (16 of 19) said they have concerns about BL stability, are open to exploring a new league and they value reliable sub-varsity schedules. The proposal document from the presentation indicated the need for more information and assessment of a potential league realignment to be presented to district leadership and the Board of Education.If Lakeview parents, student-athletes and Region 20 residents want to have their feelings heard on the state of the Berkshire League and a potential move to the NVL, there are Board of Education meetings scheduled for Nov. 5 and Nov. 19. During public comment portions of each meeting, interested parties may voice their opinions to the board.Lakeview may not be the only BL school soliciting input from students and parents about a potential change in leagues. Strever, who is the Housatonic principal as well as the BL president, said he expects each of the league's principals to send out information to parents and students so they can better understand the situation and offer input. Meanwhile the league's committee of athletic directors and principals are investigating the options for all of its schools and meeting regularly over the next month. NVL president Brian Mariano said he has received several inquiries this year from schools about the process for joining the league. He was not at liberty to discuss which schools have inquired because nobody had officially applied yet."My response to schools is that we are always open to discussions with other schools," Mariano said. "If any school inquires about potentially joining, I let them know the process we have in our constitution. It comes down to a governing body decision made by each member school's principal."A school applies. They would present at our annual governing board meeting. We discuss it as a league and the principals would take a vote after all of our feedback."NCCC president and Stafford High athletic director Damian Frassinelli confirmed that there have been cursory talks with the Berkshire League, both recent and in the past. Like the NVL, he said his conference is open to discussions about expansion.The NCCC hasn't actively been seeking to add to its 12 teams, but he realizes the situation the Berkshire League is in, so he is willing to listen."I sent (the news of inquiries) out to our league, and we have a meeting next week to discuss more, but we are open to conversations, and we have had them in the past," Frassinelli said. "There is a lot to talk about."That is a proud league, the Berkshire League, with some great athletic directors and principals. If we can be creative in looking - even into a scheduling relationship - then so be it. They are colleagues, so we will certainly continue conversations and see how it benefits everybody."Frassinelli said he can see some great advantages that could come out of expansion with Berkshire League schools, such as scheduling for the NCCC schools west of the Connecticut River and a stronger situation in some sports like field hockey.He could also see complications like the hour-and-a-half drive between Shepaug and Coventry or between Housatonic and Ellington.Frassinelli also said that typically if the NCCC is going to strongly consider expansion, it would want "a year's notice to get everything settled," because usually at some point in November the conference has a first draft of the next fall's schedule so schools can begin planning nonconference scheduling options.Mariano said the NVL could possibly accommodate expansion as early as the coming school year or in future years. There is no urgency from an NVL perspective to add teams.He said that in the past 10 years, the league has been approached 5-6 times about potential expansion. Several of those involved the Berkshire League, including the most significant time six years ago when there were very serious talks about a merger between the two leagues.According to two sources within the Berkshire League, the two leagues had significant merger discussions twice in the last 15 years, but a formal application was never put forward for a vote.In-depth discussions were held between a core group of athletic directors from each league with plenty of positive interaction, but neither group could come to a consensus on how to proceed either time, so talks broke down.Strever said the Berkshire League principals will be involved this time. He has been designated the official spokesperson for the league so that the league puts forth a singular message without having athletic directors speak publicly for their own schools.The committee the league formed includes both principals and athletic directors and will have representatives from all the schools."(An Oct. 16) meeting of BL principals and athletic directors resulted in the formation of a subcommittee that is charged with researching nearby leagues and working with the CIAC to evaluate potential solutions to address the aforementioned concerns," Strever said. "Those solutions will involve pros and cons for each school as well as for the BL as a whole."Our committee includes many individuals who have extensive ties to and history with our league, and we are approaching this challenge with deep appreciation for the traditions and culture that have existed since the formation of the Berkshire League."Strever said that the original meeting confirmed that although there were several individual schools investigating the possibility of going to a different league, there is also a willingness to find a way to move collectively in one direction or another.Ideally, the BL would like the NVL or NCCC to invite all its teams to join and create a BL division. He understands that any arrangement would have to make sense for the other leagues and for the individual teams seeking a change."Some of the schools exploring this are going to be looking at the neighboring districts that are in other leagues and how they might align with the divisions and with the travel times and maybe even how they may develop new rivalries with nearby schools that are similar in size and competitiveness," Strever said.The NVL already has 15 teams playing in three different divisions while the NCCC has 12 teams without divisional play. Whether either is willing to add 8-9 teams remains to be seen. If the NVL accepted one team to get to an even number of 16 teams or three teams to create three divisions of six teams, would the NCCC take the rest?Schedules and league championship tournaments for all the sports could be significantly affected. The distance between the leagues and the BL teams must be seriously considered, as well as the health of their subvarsity programs and how competitively they match up to NVL teams."Some of the BL schools definitely have competitive programs, particularly like girls soccer, and they have subvarsity programs," Mariano said. "So, in a sport where we only have 11 teams and half of those schools struggle with fielding a varsity team or a consistent subvarsity team, could that be a benefit? Sure."There are definitely programs in the BL that are stronger than others. So, I don't want to pretend like we are in a tremendous position where we don't need any other schools. That is why we keep the stance that we are always open to hear from schools that want to join. Is it a benefit to us? Are their programs strong enough to compete? Do they fit a need for us?"Kuslis said Nonnewaug, the biggest school in the Berkshire League, wants to be in a league with schools of similar size with big enough rosters to consistently support sub-varsity programs and provide a high enough level of varsity competition to prepare his teams for state tournament play.He said there are options that could have them joining the NVL for the 2027-28 school year or "going further out in the future."If the school decides the NVL provides what it is seeking and wants to join next year, the NVL needs a formal application sometime in December. A formal presentation would then be made to the league's principals at their January governing board meeting.Nothing seems imminent at this point as the BL, the NVL and the NCCC are all still exploring options to see what would work best for everyone going forward.Sign up for the Connecticut Briefing from CT Insider. Get the biggest headlines of the day from our network of journalists around the state.This article originally published at Berkshire League explores realignment as several schools weigh moves to other leagues.