Since 1948, Rock Creek, Riley County, Rossville, Silver Lake, Saint Marys and the schools that became Wabaunsee have all been a part of the Mid-East League.
As Wabaunsee looks to a future in a different league, we think the Flint Hills is the smart choice because of location and the size of schools.
When Rock Creek made the decision to move to the North Central Kansas League last year, we understood. Their enrollment is growing too big to stay in the MEL.
The move left the MEL with only five schools, and while administrators reached out to other schools, the league hasn’t been able to expand.
The remaining MEL schools have decided to merge with the Big Seven, forming a new league. While this is a great option for most of the other schools, we don’t think it would be the best option for WHS. Several Big Seven schools have enrollments more than twice as large as WHS, and it would add multiple long road trips to our schedule.
Wabaunsee has decided to request entry to the Flint Hills League which consists of Northern Heights, Chase County, Mission Valley, Lyndon, Osage City, West Franklin and Central Heights.
From a geographical standpoint, the move makes perfect sense. Several FHL schools are in bordering counties, and the longest trip — Central Heights — is only an hour and a half.
We love how competitive the MEL is in almost every activity, but there are several tough teams in the FHL. The move will allow us to be competitive, but it won’t be a step down by any means. We already compete against FHL schools in almost everything, so it shouldn’t be a huge adjustment.
More than a decade ago, Wabaunsee explored a move to the Flint Hills League, but decided against it. That decision made sense at the time, as WHS was a 3A school, and so it was bigger than every other school in the league. The situation is different now, and while the WHS enrollment is expected to fluctuate, we won’t be a 3-4A school anytime soon.
Although we’re sad to see some long-running rivalries come to an end, we hope that we can still compete against our old league schools as much as possible, especially the ones we’re close in size with.
Wabaunsee has had eras with some uncompetitive programs, but in the past decade, every single sport has had postseason success, including several state championships. We have a good culture, and switching leagues won’t change that.
The editorial is the opinion of the Charger staff. Students discuss editorial topics as a group and write an opinion that represents a majority of the staff.
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The Charger 
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