Greg Tunnicliff
Sports Scene
Flint Northern’s high school sports teams won’t see the Zilwaukee Bridge very often this school year.
That’s because the Vikings will be competing in the new Saginaw Valley Conference South Division.
Unlike past seasons when they routinely drove over the high-level bridge that spans the Saginaw River, the Vikings will be sticking mostly close to home this year.
“It’s going to benefit us greatly not to travel for an hour or so,” Northern athletic director Jamie Foster said. “Not only for the expense, but the time it saves for kids, to get their homework done, and to be in bed at a decent time.”
The SVC is expanding this fall, absorbing the four remaining Big Nine Conference schools – Carman-Ainsworth, Powers Catholic, Davison, and Flushing, along with independent Flint Northwestern.
Those five schools, along with longtime Valley members Northern and Flint Southwestern, will comprise the SVC South.
The SVC North consists of Bay City Central, Bay City Western, Midland, Midland Dow, Mount Pleasant, Saginaw, Saginaw Arthur Hill and Heritage.
In most cases, schools will only play the teams in their geographic division.
For example, none of the Vikings’ tennis and soccer matches will be north of the bridge. Northern will venture north once for football and twice for volleyball.
“[Saginaw Valley Conference] is a good league,” Foster said. “There is a little more competition. [New schools] make the Valley stronger, period.”
The Valley formed in 1904 as a five-team league that consisted of Bay City Eastern (Bay City Central), Bay City Handy (Bay City Western), Saginaw Eastern (Saginaw High), Saginaw Arthur Hill, and Flint High (Flint Central). It has seen many changes in its 108-year history, with the latest change representing the second time the league has gone to two divisions.
The Valley split into East-West Divisions from 1969-70 to 1979-80, crowning league champions in each sport in each division.
Beginning in the fall of 1980, the Valley went back to being just one league and having only one league champion in each sport.
Besides the names of the divisions, there are some other notable differences between the current divisional setup and its predecessor.
In six of the eight fall sports – girls’ swimming, boys’ tennis, boys’ and girls’ cross country, boys’ soccer, and girls’ golf – there will only be only one Valley champion.
Boys’ tennis will crown divisional champions, but there will be a season-ending All-Valley tournament to determine the overall league champion.
Football and volleyball will crown two Valley champions – one in each division.
“If you’re one league, there should be one champion,” Midland Dow tennis coach Terry Schwartzkopf said. “I like the fact we have one league tournament to determine who the league champion is.”
While there won’t be a great deal of interdivisional play, the new league will provide some marquee matchups this fall, particularly on the gridiron.
In week 2, defending Division 5 state champion Powers Catholic will travel to Division 3 state runner-up Mount Pleasant.
That same night (August 31), Flushing will host Midland Dow, Davison will travel to Midland, and Carman-Ainsworth will host Heritage.
“[Saginaw Valley Conference] is going to be a challenge,” Powers Catholic football coach Bob Buckel said. “The city schools have talent.”