CLEARFIELD FOOTBALL REFUSING TO PLAY DUBOIS; LEAVING D-9 LEAGUE

Dec. 15, 2003

D-9 League Should Kick Clearfield out in all sports

DUBOIS – The Tri-County Sunday out of DuBois is reporting that Clearfield is leaving the District 9 League in football.

Clearfield, currently a Class AAA school who have won at least a share of five of the last 11 D-9 League titles, is primarily leaving the league because it does not want to play Class AAAA DuBois anymore.

The Tri-County Sunday reported that Clearfield High School principal John Law sent DuBois a letter saying the Bisons were heading in a different direction with their football program and were electing not to sign a contract to continue playing the Beavers next season. It would have been the 100^th meeting between the two schools who have played at least once a year since 1919.

"Our economy has not been good for some time," Clearfield football coach Tim Janocko told Scott Shindledecker of the Tri-County Sunday. "Watching the school enrollment continue to decline and knowing how drastic the decline will continue to be, I don’t think we could continue to be competitive (with DuBois). This is in no way meant to disparage DuBois, their administration or coaches because we’ve always respected them. But this is a sign of the times.

"We could be Class AA in 2005, but for sure we will be by 2007. We’re only the third largest Class AAA school in the district now."

While Clearfield will no longer play DuBois, the Bisons currently have plans to play the remaining four members of the D-9 League – Brookville, St. Marys, Bradford and Punxsutawney.

In lieu of playing in the D-9 League, the Bisons will be joining the newly formed Mountain Athletic Conference, formerly the Big 8 Conference. Fellow D-9 League member Punxsutawney, who it is believed will remain in the D-9 League, will join them in the new conference. They will be part of the Seven Mountains Division that will also include Class AAA schools Bellefonte, Huntingdon, Indian Valley and Lewistown.

The Tri-County Sunday reported that Clearfield could have opted to remain in the D-9 League and still play in the Mountain Athletic Conference since its game with Punxsutawney could have counted for both leagues. It is not unknown in football for a District 9 school to be in two conferences. As recently as 1999, DuBois played in both the D-9 League and the Allegheny Football Conference.

The D-9 League will most likely continue to operate as a five-team league consisting of DuBois, Bradford, Punxsutawney, Brookville and St. Marys.

According to Nancy Smoose, athletic director at Brookville and chairperson of the D-9 League, the league will continue to operate in football but another team leaving it would be the end of the league.

"That’s (Clearfield not playing DuBois) is a shame," Smoose told the Tri-County Sunday. "It’s been a great rivalry between those two teams, and not only that but it hurts our league. We’re concerned that there may be a domino effect where they leave the league in other sports. It’s certainly a question at this point."

While all the D-9 League teams will be effected by a conference minus one team, it is DuBois that suffers the most. Not only do the Beavers have one more game on their schedule to fill each season they also lose one of the top rivalries in District 9 history.

In 99 meeting, DuBois holds a 66-28-5 advantage. But Clearfield has been more than respectable over the past 25 seasons trailing just 13-12. The Bisons have also split with DuBois the last 10 years and have won the last three meetings by an average score of 37.7-15.

"We’re not sure why Clearfield is doing this," DuBois athletic director Pam Murdock told the Tri-County Sunday. "You can speculate all you want, but that’s all it would be. But how many schools get a chance to play each other 100 times?"

DuBois has temporarily filled the hole credited in its schedule by adding Altoona back to the schedule after a one-year absence, and Murdock doesn’t foresee any real problems in filling out the schedule in the years to come.

"The District 6 teams have been very helpful to us," Murdock said. "And once District 10 reorganizes its playoff structure, we should be able to add one game without any trouble."