.png)
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
North Miami High School, one of the founding members of the Three Rivers Conference in 1972, will move to the Hoosier North Athletic Conference for the 2024-25 school year.
The announcement was made in a press release sent out over social media at 1 p.m. Thursday.
The move puts North Miami in a separate conference from Miami County rivals Peru and Maconaquah, who joined the TRC in 2015, as well as more traditional rivals like Rochester and Wabash County schools Northfield, Southwood, Manchester and Wabash.
Starting in the fall of 2024, the Hoosier North will now have eight schools for football and nine schools for all other sports.
South Central (Union Mills), Argos and Oregon-Davis have also joined the conference in the last two months. South Central is joining for football only while staying in the Porter County Conference for all other sports. Argos and Oregon-Davis do not offer football but will compete in other sports.
Knox and LaVille told the Hoosier North on March 31 that they would be leaving.
North Miami is in Class 1A for girls soccer, boys soccer, football, softball and baseball and Class 2A for volleyball, girls basketball and boys basketball. North Miami also offers girls and boys golf, girls and boys cross-country and wrestling. North Miami does not have swimming or tennis.
North Miami has won back-to-back sectionals in girls basketball, winning a 1A sectional in 2022 and a 2A sectional in 2023.
North Miami has also assembled a powerhouse softball program. The Lady Warriors won the TRC with a perfect 9-0 record this year and have gone 35-1 in TRC play over the last four spring sports seasons. They have won three regionals in softball in the last decade, including Class 1A semistate and state titles in 2014.
North Miami becomes the second school in just over two months to leave the TRC. Tippecanoe Valley left the TRC on March 31 to join a new yet-to-be-named conference with Bremen, Jimtown, John Glenn, Knox and LaVille for the 2024-25 year.
The TRC subsequently dropped Valley, effective at the end of this school year in an April 24 announcement. Valley will compete as an independent in 2023-24. Meanwhile, Lewis Cass was added to the TRC to replace Valley starting in 2023-24.
North Miami leaving now has the TRC at nine schools for 2024-25.
The original members of the TRC included Caston, Triton, North Miami and Northfield. Northfield is now the only school left.
The Hoosier North formed in 2015 from the remains of the former Northern State Conference and Midwest Conference schools Caston and West Central. Caston, Culver, Pioneer, Triton and Winamac have been members of the Hoosier North since its inception.
With an enrollment of 387, Winamac will be the largest school in the Hoosier North in 2024-25.
Hoosier North Athletic Conference schools in 2024-25 (2022 IHSAA enrollment figures in parentheses): Winamac (387), North Judson (323), South Central (Union Mills) (football only) (314), Pioneer (313), North Miami (287), Triton (258), Culver (255), Caston (234), Argos (192), Oregon-Davis (140)
TRC schools in 2024-25 (2022 IHSAA enrollment figures in parentheses): Peru (655), Maconaquah (604), Rochester (495), Manchester (479), Wabash (471), Whitko (417), Lewis Cass (413), Northfield (275), Southwood (240)
