When the East Penn Conference broke up back in 1997, Central Catholic athletic director Dennis Ramella thought he'd never have to go through such a thing again. In fact, he refers to it as the worst thing he's encountered during his tenure as an AD.

Fast forward 16 years and Ramella is going through the same thing again, only with a little twist. This time, instead of being the AD at Central Catholic, he's in the same position with Emmaus.

What is now known as the Lehigh Valley Conference could very well cease to exist following the 2013-14 school year. While moves have been rumored for some time, things started to become official when Lehighton announced it was moving to the Schuylkill League and playing in the Anthracite Football League. That move left the Mountain Valley Conference with six teams and the ideas started to flow.

In a move to form what they're calling a superconference, the MVC invited 10 schools from the LVC along with Bangor and Phillipsburg to join in a conference that would feature schools all designated at 4A, the largest athletic classification of schools in the PIAA. The new conference would begin play in the 2014-15 school year. Central Catholic and Bethlehem Catholic were excluded from the list of invitees, because they are 3A schools, at least that's the theory.

When asked about the similarities between the current potential breakup and what happened in 1997, Ramella thought long and hard.

"A lack of trust among the members of the conference," said Ramella. "I believe that was the principal issue with the East Penn Conference and I believe that is the principal issue today."

While Ramella or anyone else for that matter wants to mention just what brought about those trust issues, it's an easy bet that alleged recruiting of athletes by the Catholic schools is at the center of the debate, just as it was when the EPC fell apart. The word recruiting was rarely mentioned then or now; instead the term "level playing field" is used, but only when necessary. Ramella's perspective is interesting, since he was the AD at one of those schools 16 years ago and is now at Emmaus.

"We're actually very fortunate here at Emmaus. Usually the only transfers we have into our athletic program or out of our program are because of legitimate issues where a family moves," said Ramella.

The EPC basically reformed starting with the 2002-03 school year, when the five schools that left for the MVC in 1997 (Whitehall, Parkland, Liberty, Easton and Freedom) joined with Northampton and Nazareth and the remaining members of the EPC (Allen, Dieruff, Emmaus and the two Catholic schools) to form the LVC. At that time, the members talked about creating that level playing field by policing themselves.

"My main concern is for the student-athletes of the East Penn School District. Back in the '90s, both Emmaus and Central Catholic were left behind and the fallout was significant," said Ramella. "It was a difficult time, because with a small league, creating schedules was very difficult."

The superconference idea would provide plenty of ready-made opponents to fill team schedules and might provide flexibility to align divisions in various ways, something that is intriguing to Ramella.

"You could schedule by level of program, you can schedule by geographic alignment and you can schedule sport-by-sport grouping the traditional powers in that sport," said Ramella, who used wrestling as one example. "We know that the powers in that sport are Easton, Northampton, Parkland and Nazareth. What you're able to do is put those four schools in a division so that they would be facing each other and thus facing tougher competition on a regular basis."

One potential stumbling block is the increased travel to play schools within your own conference. Emmaus already plays many MVC teams in nonconference meetings and Ramella believes that travel won't turn out to be the deciding factor.

"I've looked at that from Emmaus' standpoint. We play a lot of those schools and we already travel to Stroudsburg and those areas. You just try to schedule games a little differently; perhaps you schedule a game on a Saturday afternoon rather than on a Wednesday night, so the students aren't getting home very late on a school night," said Ramella.

One potential scenario to involve the two Catholic schools is for Beca and Central to "play up" and play as 4A schools rather than remain in 3A. The PIAA allows teams to move up a level, but does not allow them to play at a lower level than they would be classified to play. So, if those two schools did move to 4A, it would conceivably remove classification as a reason for not extending invitations to the two Catholic schools.

Would that be good enough to garner an invitation for those schools?

"That's a decision that's going to be made at a much higher level," said Ramella. "All I know, and can tell you with any degree of assurance, is that there were 10 schools from the LVC that were offered invitations.

"There were also invitations given to Bangor and Phillipsburg. That would bring, if everybody accepted, the new league or conference to 18. I don't know what effect Central or Beca's decision to play at the highest designation would have. Some people may think that's too many."

For Ramella, it all comes down to one thing.

"The East Penn School District will be looking at all options and doing what is best for our students. Whether or not we change conferences, that's a decision that will be made collaboratively by the principal and the superintendent and myself and any other administrators that they feel are appropriate."