Tuesday, January 11, 2000
Mid-Miami League asked to readmit Lebanon teams
BY DAVID ECK
Enquirer Contributor
LEBANON — Three years after Lebanon left the Mid-Miami League it helped found in 1954, it's asking to return home.
The Lebanon Board of Education on Monday night agreed unanimouslyto apply for MML membership for the 2001-02 school year. Since 1997, Lebanon teams have been part of the Fort Ancient Valley Conference.
Coaches and officials speaking at the board meeting said returning to the MML would offer tougher competition, more publicity, better gate receipts and less travel expense.
The MML includes nearby rivals Springboro, Franklin, Miamisburg and Lemon-Monroe, and also would feature the rivalry with fellow football power Edgewood, which defeated Lebanon in last year's playoffs.
“For right now, it just seems to be a better fit for us,” said Dave Brausch, Lebanon's athletic director and head football coach. “I think that there are good rivalries in both leagues for us.”
Lebanon could have ended up in the FAVC's Large School Division had it stayed in the league. That would have forced Lebanon to play distant schools such as Harrison and Amelia, said school board member Orville Robinson.
“I think the biggest drawback right now would be the travel,” he said. “It would have been an hour to Harrison.
“I think it's an opportunity we don't want to pass up. We're going home,” Mr. Robinson said.
Lebanon coaches overwhelmingly backed the return to the MML, Mr. Brausch said.
The move is pending formal approval from the MML, whose director has indicated he expects Lebanon to be welcomed back.
Mr. Brausch said tentative plans would put Lebanon among four schools that would rotate between the North and South divisions of the MML. Each of the rotating schools would spend two years in the South, and six in the North.
He did not know which of the next eight years Lebanon would be in the Southern division, but it would not be in Lebanon's first two years back in the league.
Mr. Brausch said Lebanon wasn't pursuing the move because of any unhappiness with the FAVC, which includes Mason, Little Miami and Kings.
“We've been very happy there,” he said.
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