The moment one conference dissolved, a new one rose in its place.
Six of the seven area schools in the football-only I-55 Conference voted in mid-March to leave that league – effectively disbanding it – and regroup as the new Quad County Conference. The members are Bayless, Grandview, Herculaneum, Jefferson, Perryville and St. Vincent, all from the I-55, and new entrant Cuba.
The new football league is just the latest ripple emanating from the March 6 expulsion of St. Pius X of Festus from the Jefferson County Activities Association. Although the JCAA doesn’t include football, the ouster of St. Pius led the I-55 schools to reevaluate their affiliation and reconstitute without the Lancers, who will now go fully independent on the gridiron, much like Notre Dame in major college football.
The new QCC, as its name indicates, spans four counties: St. Louis (Bayless), Jefferson (Herky, Grandview and Jefferson), Perry (Perryville and St. Vincent) and Crawford (Cuba).
The Crawford County R-2 board of education voted unanimously March 18 to allow Cuba’s football team to join the QCC. With an enrollment of 345, Cuba has been an independent since it began playing varsity football in 1997. Cuba activities director Taylor Dace said she was contacted about joining the QCC on March 15 and immediately presented the idea to the board.
“Joining a conference provides us with the ability to honor more students with postseason awards,” Dace said. “By joining the conference, it provides us with more consistency with our schedule. Every two years we have to revamp our schedule, and this allows us to be more competitive.”
Cuba’s last winning record was in 2020 (6-5) and the Wildcats are 1-29 over the last three seasons. Jefferson and St. Pius walloped Cuba by a combined score of 97-6 in nonconference games last year. St. Vincent won the last two I-55 Conference titles.
The superintendents of the member schools still have to approve the QCC constitution, but the activities directors already have drawn up a schedule for the next two seasons, with the teams alternating home and away games.
The last president of the I-55 Conference was Herculaneum AD Jason Gillman. He said Cuba was the right fit for the rest of the former I-55 schools because of relative parity in enrollment; the 2023-2024 head count ranges from 117 at St. Vincent to crosstown Perryville’s 569. Grandview has 191, followed by Jefferson (235), Cuba (345), Herculaneum (358) and Bayless (432).
“We’re all trying to handle this amicably and we’re all trying to go about it the right way,” Gillman said. “We’re trying to give everyone enough time to prepare their schedules for the next year.”
A round trip from Cuba to Herculaneum is roughly 150 miles. As an independent, Cuba already was traveling all over the state to find games. Despite the distance to the other QCC schools, Dace said the football team will travel fewer miles.
All other sports Cuba participates in are in the Gasconade Valley Conference with Viburnum, Steelville, Belle and Bourbon. In joining the QCC, Cuba had to overhaul its 2024 football schedule.
“We unfortunately had to tell some schools we couldn’t play them,” Dace said. “I know it frustrates those ADs and coaches, and I feel bad, but ultimately we need to do what’s best for our school. Our kids will have some consistency and hopefully we’ll get more kids out to play.”
Because of low turnout, the Wildcats haven’t fielded a junior varsity team since 2021. Dace said the program had 30 players last fall and all of the sports at the school are experiencing a decrease in participation.
St. Pius activities director Tilden Watson said last week the Lancers’ 2024 football schedule includes Caruthersville, Fort Zumwalt East, former I-55 rival Valle Catholic, Vashon, Knob Noster and St. James. He also said he’s exploring taking St. Pius out of state for games.
Crystal City and Grandview canceled their JCAA small-schools baseball games against the Lancers this spring, but Watson said St. Pius will compete as part of the conference in the other sports: girls soccer, track and field, golf and tennis.
Starting in the 2024-2025 school year, any games St. Pius plays against JCAA teams will be nonconference. The Lancers also are excluded from two long-standing local boys basketball tournaments, the Bruce Thomas at Herculaneum and Rolla “Duke” Herbert at Crystal City.
Watson said he wants to keep playing the small schools from the county, even without the conference connections.
Alex Rouggly was Jefferson’s AD and head football coach before he was promoted to the high school principal post last year. I value Rouggly’s opinion on all these changes, even though I realize he has to take a more measured view as a senior school administrator.
“We did value the rivalry we had with St. Pius in all of our athletics,” Rouggly said. “It was a scenario where we as a conference made the decision to remove them from it. Then the I-55 disbanded to create the Quad County Conference with Cuba.
“We want to make sure we did things that were best for the entire (JCAA and I-55). As a district we’ll evaluate where we’re at and see. I’m not saying we won’t play (St. Pius) in a nonconference game in a couple of years. We won’t say we’re never going to play them again.”
That includes this spring. Rouggly said Jefferson will honor all of its spring commitments with the Lancers, including a home baseball game April 30. He also said Cuba will draw more football players now that it’s in a conference. Cuba beat the Blue Jays 37-21 in 2020 when Rouggly was head coach and guided Jefferson to the Class 2 semifinals and a 9-3 record.
“I think (the QCC) will be a competitive conference for years to come,” Rouggly said.
St. Pius isn’t the only private school in the area without a conference home. In 2022, the Archdiocesan Athletic Association disbanded; its membership included Cardinal Ritter, St. Mary’s, Duchesne, Lutheran-St. Charles, St. Francis Borgia and St. Dominic. Two other local football conferences still operating are the Metro Catholic Conference (CBC, Chaminade, De Smet, St. Louis University High and Vianney) and the Metro League (Priory, John Burroughs, Lutheran North, MICDS, Lutheran South, Principia and Westminster).
I’ve tried to envision a new private school conference bringing together the AAA refugees with St. Pius, but the Lancers (enrollment 227) would be mismatched against St. Dominic (804) and Cardinal Ritter overpowers everybody in football and just won the Class 6 (that’s right, the largest class) state championship in basketball. So a resurrected AAA with St. Pius likely would have to leave those two out. In football the Lancers were in Class 2 in 2023.
Watson and St. Pius President Jim Lehn said they’re moving on from the decisions made by the JCAA and I-55 schools. The rest of us are trying to do that, too.