Growing disparity in enrollment has sacked Heart O' Lakes football.
Frazee and Agassiz Valley opted to move to the new Northern Plains Conference, while Roseau and Perham entered the Northern Lakes. That left just four teams, dissolving the league in football.
Other HOL sports will not be affected.
The remaining four teams will be independents.
"It's not a surprise, because we knew once teams started splitting that there might not be a Heart O' Lakes Conference anymore," Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton activities director Craig Anderson said. "It's nothing new in Minnesota, and now it's gotten to this conference."
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The HOL was comprised of Agassiz Valley, Breckenridge, Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton, Frazee, Pelican Rapids, Perham, Roseau and West Central Area.
The HOL was looking at merging with the Northern Lakes and creating one large conference with two divisions - one division of big schools, one of small schools. The two teams moving to the Northern Plains changed that plan.
"We were looking at trying to make a big conference, but with Frazee and Agassiz Valley going to the Northern Plains, we had to start all over again," Perham activities director Fred Sailer said. "The larger division was really all that was left."
Every two years, the Minnesota State High School League reclassifies every team into one of the state's six football classes based on enrollment. With some schools growing and others shrinking, imbalance is created in the conferences.
"What everybody wants is to play schools that are their own size," HOL secretary treasurer Chuck Evert said. "... In football, everything is based on class. You don't want to be playing a lot schools that are a class above you."
The four independent teams from the HOL will have to apply to get into another conference for the 2008 season.
"We'd like to be in a conference, that's for sure," Anderson said. "Now we have to hope one will let us in, or the state will put us into one."
Both Sailer and Anderson said the state has to look at making conferences based on sectional lines to put an end to the now common jumping from league to league.
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"Football is difficult to schedule because you're only playing once per week and there are six different classes," Sailer said. "That's why we hope the (MSHSL) will take a look at making the sections the conferences.
"That would make seeding for the playoffs easier because you've all played each other, and you'd be playing teams in the same class."
Readers can reach Forum sports writer Kerry Collins at (701) 241-5548. Collins' prep sports blog can be found at www.areavoices.com
