Posted: 5/5/04

Cretin Durham-Hall newest member of SEC

Joe Drennan
Sports Editor

After being turned down by nine metro-area athletic conferences, then being placed in the Suburban East Conference by the Minnesota State High School League only to have that placement appealed, Cretin-Derham Hall now has a conference to call home - the SEC.

The MSHSL originally placed Cretin-Derham Hall in the SEC, but both Cretin-Derham Hall and the SEC participating members appealed the decision citing that the criteria for placement into a conference is based upon enrollment and geography.

ìI wouldnít say that we were disappointed by the original placement,î Cretin-Derham Hall athletic director John Janke said. ìIt was that the placement wasnít on the criteria set forth, but itís over and done with and we expect to become an active, contributing member of the SEC.î

After the MSHSL and a judge reviewed the appeals, they decided that Cretin-Derham Hall belonged in the SEC. The addition of Cretin-Derham Hall now brings the number of schools in the SEC to nine. This odd number may become a scheduling issue when Cretin-Derham Hall joins the SEC in the 2005-06 school year.
In February Forest Lake High School football coach Jim Herman said the addition of Cretin-Derham Hall would cause a scheduling conflict as one SEC team will be forced to play a non conference game each week during the regular season.

The SEC did not appeal the MSHSLís decision because they didnít want to play Cretin-Derham Hall. Many of the Forest Lake coaches said playing the quality teams that Cretin-Derham Hall is known to produce can only make their own programs stronger and prepare them for section play.

ìWhen people say theyíre good competing, yeah, they are,î Herman said. ìBut when you play them instead of Hastings, Mounds View or Stillwater, itís not that big of a deal. There are a lot of good programs in the SEC.î

ìOur conference is so tough as it is now, whatís another tough one,î Forest Lake baseball coach Brian Raabe added. ìI donít understand why theyíre coming to our conference I donít think anyone does, but thatís not for me to worry about.î

Forest Lake teams wonít start playing Cretin-Derham Hall until the fall of 2005. There is still a possibility that some of the spring teams could see Cretin-Derham Hall on their schedule as early as next season, but it is unlikely since most schedules are already set.

ìThere would be way too much disruption if we did anything before that,î Janke said. ìWe wish it could be sooner though because weíre looking forward to a lot of great contest sand consistent scheduling and programming that can go down the line from grades nine to 12 and know when we schedule 9th grade soccer games we know they are going to be played.î

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