Dave Wolf – WSJM Sports Director.
With the word coming down that Benton Harbor was voted out of the Lakeland Conference, the question focuses on what’s next for the Tigers athletic department. Shortly after the start of the calendar year, Benton Harbor was informed that Berrien Springs, Buchanan, Brandywine, and Dowagiac voted them out of the Lakeland Conference. A search of the minutes and agendas of the four school boards did not show any items related to the Lakeland Conference or Benton Harbor, which means it was likely voted on by the athletic directors at each school, and athletic directors listen to their coaches, and the coaches to the parents.
The reason given to Benton Harbor was the lack of participation in some sports, some at the varsity level, but underclassmen levels as well. Some of the sports the Lakeland schools offer include boys and girls soccer, of which Benton Harbor hasn’t fielded teams in nearly 15 years. There are other sports like Tennis, Cross Country, and Competitive Cheerleading that are not offered by Benton Harbor. Benton Harbor’s track and field teams, wrestling, and golf teams often do not have a full roster to compete in team events, instead they compete as individuals. Sports like volleyball, baseball and softball are not even competitive. Plus this is just at the varsity level, some of the Benton Harbor teams do not have any freshman or junior varsity squads to help develop their younger players.
So what’s next? New Athletic Director Danny Jennings was welcomed to the job in January with the decision by the Lakeland Conference dropped on him. Jennings told us that the Tigers are going to work on increasing the participation of their students in the athletic programs while playing as an independent school. Jennings said going around the community and inside the classrooms and hallways of the high school is where he’ll start to try to build up the participation of the students. I’ll even go a step further, go to the halls of the elementary schools, get those kids involved with the high school athletic programs, have those kids be on the sidelines of any and all sports games, help kids find local youth sports leagues and programs in Benton Harbor, which also needs the boost in participation.
We know Benton Harbor’s “Sport” is basketball, but the more sports you expose the youth to, the more kids will find out that they have the ability to play in other sports as well as basketball. Coaches across the country cannot stress enough of the importance of players not specializing in just one sport, but in multiple sports over the course of their school careers. College and pro coaches want players that have multiple skills, and even if kids won’t go on to play in college, the benefits, physically and mentally for athletes to play in multiple sports are even better.
It’s hard to say what the area conference picture will look like in a decade, but would the Lakeland conference take the Tigers back if Benton Harbor increases their participation of their sports programs? The Lakeland Conference is now a little more stable with an even number of teams, which is the same situation for the Wolverine Conference, the 8 member league has found stability after the departures of Allegan, South Haven and Dowagiac, and the addition of Niles.
Really with the Wolverine a probably no vote, it leaves a few options, there is the SAC, with teams like Coloma, Watervliet, South Haven, Bridgman, and Allegan. Schools are similar in size, and many of which they already play in some non-conference games. But the elephant in the room is the Tigers boys basketball team. Will area schools willingly take in the Tigers program and have to face one of the top programs in the state year after year to play the Tigers in other sports. This would probably be the better option for Benton Harbor because the SAC does not have a full roster for 11 man football. Fennville, Gobles, Martin, and Bridgman play 8-man football, and not to mention that Kalamazoo Hackett and Kalamazoo Christian are a co-op team, playing as Kalamazoo United, and Benton Harbor has played many SAC schools in non-conference games across many sports in the past few years.
The Southwest 10 would be another local option, but less likely than the SAC, the Southwest 10 is made up of Bangor, Bloomingdale, Decatur, Lawrence, Hartford, Comstock, Cassopolis, White Pigeon, Marcellus, and Centreville. These are smaller Class C and D teams, that would have serious doubts about taking in the Tigers, who are still a Class B school.
However the issues cited by the Lakeland Conference would still affect Benton Harbor in the SAC, or Southwest 10, as the Tigers do not field teams in all league sports.
This last possibility would be a stretch, just because of the distances involved, but the Interstate Eight Athletic Conference is down to 7 schools after Jackson Lumen Christi departed to join the Detroit Catholic league. Benton Harbor wouldn’t have to join the league entirely, but if Benton Harbor could work things out with the I-8 to fill out their football schedule, it would take a few things off Jennings plate. The “I-8” is located between Battle Creek and Jackson, with schools like Harper Creek, Battle Creek Pennfield, Coldwater, Marshall, Hastings, Parma-Western and Hastings. Benton Harbor was in the SMAC along with Harper Creek, Marshall, and Coldwater, before those schools left in 2012 and the Tigers left in 2016. Again you don’t have to join that conference in all sports, but you could join for just football and if a team in another sport has that open spot on the I-8 schedule, wanted a game, and if Benton Harbor was willing, could fill that gap.
Unfortunately for Benton Harbor, there is no quick solution and no easy fix. The Benton Harbor schools have bounced back greatly after Governor Whitmer proposed shutting down the district in 2019, this situation will be another opportunity for Benton Harbor to silence the doubters, and rise above expectations.
