As reported recently by the Times News, two local athletic programs have received invitations for membership in the Colonial League.

Jim Thorpe and Lehighton are currently on fact finding missions to determine if changing from the Schuylkill League to the Colonial League will provide additional benefits for their student athletes.

Athletic Directors, Dustin McAndrew from Jim Thorpe and Kyle Spotts from Lehighton have not yet gathered enough information to make their recommendations to their respective boards of education.

“One consideration will be the cost to the school district,” said McAndrew. “If you compare the travel to our farthest schools, it’s pretty similar, but it really depends upon who ends up on our schedules to determine the cost factor.”

McAndrew mentioned Pine Grove as a school that’s nearly 50 miles from Jim Thorpe. A move to the Colonial League might require some teams to travel to Palisades or Southern Lehigh which are both about 50 miles away from the high school.

Spotts agreed.

“If you just look at the schools in each league, the travel distances are similar, but that depends on who we play,” he said.

Classifications based upon male and female school populations are set by the PIAA every two years and both the Olympians and the Indians conduct sports programs that are classified differently depending upon the particular sport. For example, JT soccer is 2A, football is 3A and baseball is 4A. Lehighton’s football program is 3A, basketball is 4A, and field hockey is 1A. Both directors said that it would be difficult to determine which league offers schools that are similar in competitive levels because schedules often have crossover events that match teams with uneven classifications.

“Until a divisional alignment is determined, trying to see which league is competitively equal to us is can’t be figured,” said McAndrew.

“There’s a cyclical nature to competition levels,” said Spotts, “One year a team can be very strong, but not the next.”

Graduation can take a toll on any sport and a powerhouse program can change in the next year to a very young team that might struggle because of its lack of varsity experience.

Both Thorpe and Lehighton asked to be accepted into the Colonial League in 1997, but both bids were rejected because the league believed the competition would be too difficult due to both schools being smaller in population at the time and they would be competing against much larger schools. That issue is no longer a topic for discussion as some schools in the league have gained students while others have dropped in overall population.

In fact, both the Olympians and Indians are now playing crossover games against the likes of Colonial League members: Palmerton, Northern Lehigh, Northwestern and Bangor, especially in football where they play in what’s called the Schuylkill – Colonial League.

“Something for us to consider is that the Colonial League has schools that play tennis and field hockey,” said Spotts. “Those sports for us are independent teams because the Schuylkill League has no schools to compete with these programs.”

Thorpe also has this issue to consider because of their independent tennis program.

Northern Lehigh athletic director, Bryan Geist is also the President of the Colonial League and was asked why the invitation to both schools was offered.

“Both Lehighton and Jim Thorpe fit in our league with the size of their school enrollment,” he said. “Their geography puts them close to Palmerton, Northern Lehigh, and Northwest Lehigh. Their facilities match facilities found in the Colonial League.”

Geist added details about the league’s familiarity with both schools.

“Adding them will improve the scheduling with more schools and we already schedule contests with Jim Thorpe and Lehighton. We also have many good relationships with their administrations and their coaches,” he said.

Both schools hope to complete their fact finding in January. The deadline to accept the invitations will be later in the month of February. If Jim Thorpe and/or Lehighton accept membership, the new sports schedules will take effect in the fall of 2024.