On Friday, the Heritage Conference and Bishop Carroll Catholic High School announced a two-year agreement that will have all nine Heritage Conference football teams play the same independent football opponent, Bishop Carroll, during the 2020 and 2021 football seasons.
Heritage Conference President Jody Rainey spoke with our Mark Bertig about the announcement.
The following is the press release from the Heritage Conference:
The Heritage Conference and Bishop Carroll Catholic High School are pleased to announce a 2-year agreement that will have all nine Heritage Conference football teams play the same independent football opponent, Bishop Carroll, during the 2020 and 2021 football seasons.
The agreement satisfies a need of the Heritage Conference to fill a scheduling void for their member schools in football created when Ligonier Valley chose to leave the Heritage Conference and District 6 to seek membership with District 7 (WPIAL). The agreement also achieves a goal of Bishop Carroll by securing a schedule that is geographically sensible and provides more competitive balance for their football program.
Bishop Carroll did not seek membership to the Heritage Conference and they remain an independent football program and their other athletic programs will continue to compete in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference. As such, this agreement provides flexibility to void the agreement after the 2020 football season through two distinct clauses. The first clause allows the Heritage Conference to void the agreement after the 2020 season if the conference accepts a new full member school and the new member school could begin play in football with the conference by the 2021 season. The other clause permits the Heritage Conference or Bishop Carroll to void the agreement at the end of the 2020 season if either party forms a partnership or joins another conference to provide for greater football opportunities.
Heritage Conference President Jody Rainey remarked, “This agreement makes sense for the Heritage Conference. The agreement is consistent with our mission to provide positive and enriching experiences for students from our member schools. The agreement also provides our conference the luxury to thoroughly deliberate and explore potential new member schools for our conference or explore expanding partnerships or forming new partnerships with other conferences.”
Lorie Ratchford, principal of Bishop Carroll commented, “We are excited to partner with the Heritage Conference to secure a football schedule that will offer greater opportunities for our football program to develop and grow. We also are pleased we could help the Heritage Conference fill a need and provide a game for each of their member schools. We are confident all students will have positive and enriching experiences through this partnership.”
