TAAC approves Montpelier for football membership
5/15/2014Principals and athletic directors from the Toledo Area Athletic Conference voted Thursday to approve Montpelier High School as a future football-only member of the conference.
The vote was taken following a TAAC meeting at Danbury High School the previous day. TAAC commissioner Rick Kaifas said the Locomotives would begin a full seven-game TAAC schedule in 2016.
This move, which still requires approval from Montpelier administrators, would bring the TAAC football membership to 10 teams. That includes the addition of Tiffin Calvert next fall.
The full-time TAAC members who play football are Cardinal Stritch, Danbury, Gibsonburg, Northwood, Ottawa Hills, and Toledo Christian. Edon and Hilltop, who are members of the Buckeye Border Conference, are football-only members of the TAAC.
Montpelier athletic director Joe Brigle declined comment on the move because his school has a June 4 membership status deadline with its current league, the Northwest Ohio Athletic League.
Montpelier is also looking to join the BBC for its non-football sports, but that plan has not been finalized.
Kaifas indicated that the seven-game TAAC schedule may be increased in the future, and that the conference may ultimately adopt an east-west format of two five-team alignments.
Under that scenario, the most likely groupings would have Ottawa Hills and Toledo Christian in the west with Edon, Hilltop and Montpelier, and the remaining teams in the east.
-- Steve Junga