With an extensive background in the Big Seven League – first as an athlete during his prep days at Holton and then cutting his coaching teeth at Royal Valley – Kyle Porter has long viewed the league as one of the premier small-school leagues in the state.
 
Now head girls basketball coach at Silver Lake, Porter developed the same vibes about the Mid-East League.
 
“There’s no question when you’re in the Big Seven League, playing or coaching, you feel you’re going to be tested about as well as any team in the state in preparation for the postseason,” Porter said. “And now being in the Mid-East League, it’s a very similar feeling.”
 
Starting this fall, two of the top small-school leagues in the state will join forces to become arguably the best in the state. Last June, the Big Seven and Mid-East Leagues officially announced their merger for the 2024-25 season, becoming the Big East League. The league will include seven previous members of the Big Seven and four from the Mid-East at the high school level with a 12^th school, Atchison, joining the league for middle school activities only.
 
“I think it’s really cool and pretty exciting,” Porter said. “You look at what college is doing with expanding conferences and see the Big Seven, which has had so many successful teams and state championships from all different sports combine with the Mid-East League, which has had just as much if not more success, it’s really fun and exciting.
 
“With the merger, I would venture to say we’re one of, if not the top, small-school conference in the state and I think it’s really going to benefit all teams to be tested and have to compete night-in, night-out. I think you’ll see a lot of success in the postseason because of that.”
 
The impetus for the merger began several years ago.
 
As the largest school in the Mid-East League, Rock Creek wasn’t necessarily out of place in the league, which it has been a part of for 30-plus years. But as the district has continued to grow – the Mustangs for several years have the lone MEL school in Class 4A for all sports except football where they were the lone 3A – its needs weren’t necessarily being fully met as a Mid-East member.
 
And with the North Central Kansas League containing schools not only closer in size but also close in proximity, it became clear it was a better fit. And in November 2021, the district announced it would move to the NCKL starting in the fall of 2022 at the middle school level and fall of 2024 at the high school level.
 
“The Mid-East League has been a really, really strong league for a long time and I want to emphasize that we’ve been happy being a member and appreciate the relationships that we’ve been a part of,” Rock Creek athletic director Darwyn Thomlinson told The Manhattan Mercury in 2021. “We’ve been a growing district for quite some time now. We’ve been considering, as we’ve looked at our projected growth, what league would kind of fit us best in terms of where we’re going.”
 
Rock Creek’s announced departure left the Mid-East League at a bit of a crossroads as a five-team league consisting of Riley County, Rossville, Silver Lake, St. Marys and Wabaunsee. Going into the 2024-25 school year, there are only two leagues in the state with membership of five schools or less, the Kaw Valley Conference (five schools) and Santa Fe Trail League (three schools).
 
“At that point, it was a decision of ‘Do we want to stay in a league of five or do we want to explore other options?’” said Erin Flair, who recently accepted the superintendent job at Riley County after serving as the school’s athletic director for a number of years. “It would have been difficult to (stay at five), filling all those scheduling holes. With Rock Creek leaving it left holes in the schedules for all the remaining schools and that would have been a challenge to fill those in order to keep full schedules for all athletics.”
 
The other options for the Mid-East League boiled down to two: Try to find a replacement (or two) for Rock Creek and continue as a new-look MEL; or have the remaining members collectively join a new league or seek new leagues independently.
 
Early on, the MEL attempted the first option, trying to lure neighboring schools of similar size. Discussions were had with a handful of schools within close proximity – including Council Grove, Marysville and Southeast of Saline – but in the end none of the schools’ league officials contacted were willing to make the move.
 
“Those other schools were content and happy with their leagues,” Flair said. “There weren’t any area schools looking to move or were unhappy with their current situations. If schools aren’t looking, it’s hard to recruit.”
 
Not finding any suitors, the possibility of each league school looking out for itself never really presented itself. The built-in rivalries and long-standing relationships were simply too much to discard for self-preservation.
 
“(Silver) Lake and us talked about the possibility of leaving the Mid-East but didn’t want to do that,” Rossville athletic director Curt Brecheisen said. “Lake wasn’t going anywhere without us and we weren’t going anywhere without them. But what we really liked was the brand of the Mid-East League because of all the success that the league has had over the years. We didn’t want to give that brand up.”
 
The only option left on the table was finding another league that would be willing to accept the remaining MEL schools. And next door, the Big Seven League was also experiencing attrition with the departure of Riverside – far and away the smallest school in the league as the lone 2A school in all sports except football where the Cyclones were the lone 1A school in the Big Seven – to the Northeast Kansas League.
 
And while that left a void, it didn’t leave the Big Seven in a must-add situation with seven schools – Hiawatha, Holton, Jefferson West, Nemaha Central, Perry-Lecompton, Royal Valley and Sabetha – in its membership. In addition, the Big Seven’s middle school league was gaining Atchison, placed in the league by the Kansas State High School Activities Association.
 
Yet when the Mid-East League began making overtures about a possible merger, the Big Seven was willing to entertain the idea.
 
“Whenever the two leagues got together to discuss this, we as the Big Seven started to think about the longevity of our league and where we sit,” said Nemaha Central volleyball coach Jessica Koch, who then also was the school’s athletic director. “We wanted to find a way to truly make our league one of the best leagues in the state. We knew with combining the Big Seven and the Mid-East, those are some very strong schools and programs and we thought it would be beneficial to our athletes, our coaches and all of our programs.”
 
Then the work began. And as Flair said, “It was massive. There’s no other way to say it.”
 
With Flair and Koch taking lead roles for each of their leagues, the process began by taking the constitutions from each league and comparing them. Similarities between the two were highlighted, as were differences. 
 
Using that as a starting point, surveys were then sent out to every coach of a sport and every sponsor of an activity, seeking their input as to what a new league structuring should look like for their respective sport or activity. In addition, an athletic director at one of the schools in either league was chosen as an administrator in charge of a sport or activity while each league also had a different representative for each sport/activity.
 
“We tried to get input from them because we didn’t just want to present something to them and have them upset with how the bylaws would read for their sport,” Koch said. “You just really had to try and think about it from all angles. There was a lot of communication and I think all the coaches feel like they were a part of putting together this new league and what it meant for their sport.
 
“You could definitely feel the anticipation from the coaches in their responses. All of us are used to what we’ve been used to doing so it was enlightening to put together all the results and share those with the coaches about ‘Hey, this is what everyone thinks we should do.’ It was nice to see the different perspectives, but at the same time there were a lot of commonalities. A lot of those same mindsets came through on the surveys.”
 
Once the surveys were returned and feedback processed, the leagues had countless meetings to create a constitution that was acceptable for all parties.
 
“Our meetings were very productive and had great conversations,” Flair said. “We learned a lot from each other. There were things the Mid-East League had historically done that the Big Seven really hadn’t done a lot of and they were interested in learning from us. And there were things the Big Seven had historically done that the Mid-East hadn’t ever thought about and we were interested in learning from them.”
 
Throughout the process, Wabaunsee was a bit of a wild card in its potential place in the new league if the merger went through. The school has been the smallest in the Mid-East League for years – competing in Class 2A in all sports except football where the Chargers had been the lone 1A school for years before St. Marys dipped into that classification for the previous two-year cycle and Rossville dropping down to 1A for the upcoming two-year cycle.
 
“Wabaunsee was very up front and transparent from the beginning and throughout the entire process,” Flair said. “When we sat down as the Mid-East League they pointed out their enrollment was steady and at times declining. They sat at the table throughout the process and said their board of education would need to decide what the best course of action was for them.”
 
As talks progressed to where the merger was going to become a reality, it wasn’t a fit for Wabaunsee and the Chargers elected to join the Flint Hills League, which formed in 2004 with Mission Valley and Osage City leaving the Mid-East League at that time to become inaugural members of the new league.
 
That left 11 schools prepared to move forward as the new Big East League and in June 2023, the merger became official.
 
“All of our athletic directors work well together and we all have that same vision,” Flair said. “We work for similar communities, we all have competitive programs that want to be successful at the highest level. We want our students to learn from their extra-curricular athletics and activities and I think what we found was the similarities of the schools connected all of us and that led us in the direction of the merger.
 
“It was the best of both worlds coming together and we’re excited to be a part of a great league. That was the driving factor for the two leagues to be willing to put in that many hours and all that time to get us to where we’re at. Knowing we have the opportunity to do what’s great for kids and giving our students more opportunities, it’s very exciting.”
 
The work was far from done. In addition to finalizing the new league constitution, there was a matter of devising schedules for each sport, which presented its own challenges. Flair said there were no fewer than 25 meetings over the past year since the merger announcement as the work continued to be ready for the 2024-25 school year.
 
“There was just a lot to get done for that first year,” Koch said. “That’s when all the hard work happened in how we wanted our constitution and bylaws to look. The ADs would get together and then present it to the principals and coaches. Last year was a very hard year working on establishing everything so we were ready to go this year.
 
“There were a lot of hands that helped with it. We sat down and tried to think about each sport and what would be best for each one scheduling-wise. For baseball, how many times would you play each other based on the number of teams. For volleyball, how would we set it up so it’s a positive schedule. Clearly football is a different situation. But it was just taking into consideration the number of matches or games allowed through KSHSAA and then using our numbers to put together schedules that worked.
 
“Honestly, the hardest one was basketball. With having 11 schools at the high school level, somebody is going to have a bye week and it’s not necessarily going to come at the most convenient time. That was the most difficult schedule, but Kelly (Williams) and Erin (Flair) really worked hard on those high school ones to make it work the best we could.”
 
Both Koch and Flair admitted that the product the league is taking into its first year is far from finished.
 
“It’s not perfect and we know that,” Flair said. “We’ve told our coaches it’s a learning experience to get through that first year and if we need to amend something, we can.”
 
Koch agreed.
 
“Are there going to be some adjustments made once we try this out? Probably so,” she said. “But for the most part, I think we have a really good fit for the league schools. We’re all going into it knowing there are adjustments that have to be made. But we’re hopeful that we’ve made really good decisions and used enough judgment that it will be minor things. No schedule or constitution is ever perfect, but we wanted it to come from the coaches and I think they’re the ones in the driver’s seat and know what’s best for each program.”
 
The Big East comes into the 2024-25 season riding a pretty good high with the new league members having combined to win seven state championships in 2023-24. Nemaha Central captured its second straight Class 2A state football championship, while Silver Lake won Class 3A championships in both girls basketball and girls golf as well as four-speaker debate and Rossville claimed the Class 4-1A girls wrestling championship and Class 3-2-1A dance and Class 3A cheer titles.
 
The rich traditions each league brings to the table has created a level of excitement for its member coaches.
 
“I think it’s going to be a really competitive and fun league,” Holton football coach Brooks Barta said. “The tough thing is, with districts, we’re only getting to play one new team, Riley County. There will be some changes from year to year in the cycles. You’re used to having the same schedule pretty much every year and now you’ll see some different schedules every two years.
 
“Our league has kind of cycled with having good teams rise up and then maybe go back down for a little bit and then rise back up again. This kind of guarantees that you’re going to see some really good teams no matter what and maybe take a few more losses than you normally might have but will be better off for the competition that you’ve faced. But I think you’ll see postseason ready teams in all of our sports because of this. It’s going to be fun for our fans to go to some new places and develop some new rivalries.”
 
Koch agreed.
 
“I’ve looked at our schedules for the high school and I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is going to be a very tough year,’” she said. “I think that all of the schools in the league are excited about that competition knowing that week-in, week-out, there’s no easy week. That’s pretty exciting for coaches and for schools.”
 
“My volleyball schedule, I looked at it and it was, ‘Holy cow! This is a tough night! Oh this is a tough night!’ There’s no easy nights and I’m pretty pumped about it and I think the girls are. We haven’t really gotten to see Silver Lake, Rossville or St. Marys even though we’re only less than an hour away. Our schedules just never aligned. This is very positive for our volleyball program.”
 
In addition, Brecheisen said that league titles in different sports will carry even more prestige.
 
“The league golf tournament will actually be a golf tournament because of having more teams,” he said. “The league wrestling tournament will have more validation. In the past, you could be a league champ or runner-up because there were only two in a weight class.
 
“We liked the brand coming out of the Mid-East League. But something we all talked as a group with the Big East, was, ‘Look at the potential that this league is going to offer competition-wise – not only athletically, but in your fine arts stuff. It’s going to be a great league across the board.”
 
In addition to the merger of the Mid-East and Big Seven Leagues, there are other changes to a handful of leagues across the state going into the 2024-25 school year.
 

• In addition to adding Wabaunsee, the Flint Hills League also has added Cair Paravel, which previously competed in the Kaw Valley Conference. The two new schools replace a pair of departing schools with Central Heights leaving to join the Three Rivers League and Northern Heights moving to the Lyon County League.
• In the Lyon County League, Northern Heights will replace Southern Coffey County, which will move to the Three Rivers League.
• Joining Riverside as a newcomer to the Northeast Kansas League will be Troy, which previously was a member of the Twin Valley League.
• Lyons is moving from the Central Kansas League to the North Central Activities Association.