CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mountain State Athletic Conference commissioner Fred Aldridge was a guest on Wednesday’s MetroNews High School Sportsline after five schools expressed interest in leaving the league without penalties and were ultimately shot down.
“They’re free to go, but if they leave — under Article 2, Section 6, that means that they would be penalized,” Aldridge said. “And that penalty would be a (payment) of $5,000 and four years without any school in the conference competing with you in an athletic event.”
Greenbrier East and Lincoln County both left the league in 2012 as at least two-thirds of member principals voted to allow the moves without penalties. That wasn’t the case this time around as Nitro, Parkersburg, Ripley and Princeton submitted their requests last week, while Woodrow Wilson submitted concerns it had prior to Wednesday’s meeting.
Long travel was a key issue given by the group of five.
“It is a concern — I know Beckley has submitted four concerns and they’ll be on the agenda in May when we meet,” Aldridge said. “One of the things they wanted is regional scheduling, particularly in non-revenue sports. Another concern was if they played a varsity football game on Friday night, they didn’t want to play a game on Monday – that’s something the two schools can work out.”
The complete interview with Aldridge is posted at the top of the page.
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