By BUTCH HARMON
The Capital Area Athletics Conference (CAAC) is not the only high school league that will be experiencing change next season. As in college football and basketball, the high school athletic league landscape will be changing all over lower Michigan next fall.
Two new leagues have been formed and will be making their debuts next fall.
The larger of the two leagues that will debut is the Interstate 8. The league takes its name from the proximity of the schools to two local expressways, which will make for ease of travel. All eight member schools are located near I-94 or I-69, which intersect just west of Marshall.
Four of the new teams will come from the CAAC. Lumen Christi Catholic, Northwest, Parma Western, and Charlotte are CAAC members. They will join Pennfield from the Kalamazoo Valley Athletic Association (KVAA) and Harper Creek, Marshall, and Coldwater from the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference.
The league will be an instant football power, as Lumen Christi, Harper Creek, Marshall, and Pennfield have storied football traditions.
The Greater Lansing Athletic Conference is the other new league. It will have five football-playing members in Lakewood and Stockbridge coming over from the CAAC, Perry from the Genesee Athletic Conference, Maple Valley from the KVAA, and Leslie as an independent. Lansing Christian, also an independent, will be a non-football playing member of the league.
In the Flint area, the Flint Metro Conference will have a new look. Lapeer East and Lapeer West are merging into one school and will be leaving the conference to join a larger league. Flushing is moving over from the Saginaw Valley Association to replace the two Lapeer schools and give the league eight members.
In west central Michigan, the Central States Activities Conference will be adding two new members to bring its membership to 12. Grant and Tri County are moving into the league from the Lakes Eight Conference and will join Big Rapids, Hesperia, Holton, Lakeview, Morley Stanwood, Newaygo, Reed City, Chippewa Hills, Central Montcalm, and White Cloud.