McKinley: Nevada High School needs a conference

"Do we desire to be in a conference? Absolutely." Nevada High School Athletic Director Kevin McKinley has spent most of the last three years holding that mindset after the disbandment of the Southwest Conference in 2007 that left Nevada and McDonald County with the very substantial disadvantage that comes with independent status.

If only getting into a conference were that easy. As evidenced by the efforts of McKinley and his colleagues, it takes a lot more than desire to accomplish the feat of entering a new conference. The Missouri State High School Activities Association has refused to become involved due to the fact that the only feasible option for placing Nevada in a conference is the Big 8 -- a conference that has already rejected a previous application by Nevada.

The MSHSAA has expressed what seems to be a token willingness to place Nevada into a conference since all of the requirements set by the state to warrant forced placement have been met, but McKinley said that any such placement will not occur in the foreseeable future.

Several arguments have been made against simply placing Nevada into any of the conference around this part of the state, including the simple aversion to displeasing the current eight members of the Big 8 Conference just to give Nevada a conference home. On top of that, many have cited the argument that Nevada is simply out in the middle of nowhere and it's neither desirable nor even feasible for potential conference opponents to make the trip here to play.

McKinley, however, dismissed that argument. "What bothers me is sometimes when that argument is made -- and we make it, too -- that we're out in the middle of nowhere; if people were traveling to Nevada in the 1930s to play a high school football or basketball game, that's a lot less cumbersome today with the four-lane highways and travel and communications than it was back then," he said.

In the beginning, Nevada started as part of the Southwest Missouri Inter-High League that was established in 1920 with 18 original member schools. On Dec. 11, 1929, Joplin and Springfield were voted out and the conference was renamed the Big 8 with Aurora, Carthage, Lamar, Monett, Mount Vernon, Neosho and Webb City joining Nevada.

The conference expanded for the first time and became known as the Big 9 in 1954 when Cassville's bid for acceptance was granted. In 1963, the conference expanded to 10 member schools to include Carl Junction.

The conference later expanded for the third and final time when East Newton, McDonald County and Seneca joined to form the Big 13 in 1976. In 1981-'82, the beginning of the end came for the Big 13 Conference when it split into East and West Divisions, divided by school size.

After that split occurred and many of the member schools continued to grow, it wasn't long before the conference disbanded entirely and the two divisions split entirely to form the Big 8 and Big 6 Conferences. The Big 6 Conference lasted until the mid-1980s when the two member schools from Joplin merged, leaving Nevada, Webb City, McDonald County, Neosho and Carthage to form the Southwest Conference.

The Southwest Conference lasted until 2007, when the growth experienced by four of the five member schools led Webb City, Neosho and Carthage to seek other conference affiliation with larger schools. That ultimately left Nevada hung out to dry as they didn't have the numbers of their fellow member schools due to almost completely stagnant populations.

"Nevada didn't grow like those other high schools did. And Nevada High School is approximately 100 kids less than it was when I graduated in 1982," McKinley said. "And that's true of the town, too."

That lack of growth has ultimately left Nevada High School with very few options for joining a conference in the foreseeable future, thus leaving McKinley and his colleagues with a number of significant hurdles to overcome. "It doesn't do us any good or anybody any good to whine and cry about it and that's not what we're doing, it's just that it does provide challenges to our programs and our kids," he said.

Those challenges include not only scheduling issues, but a substantial disadvantage to individual athletes. A lack of conference affiliation takes away a number of the chances athletes have at end-of-season honors. Without a conference, chances at placement on All-Conference, All-Area, and even All-State teams are severely limited, and in some cases, even chances at exposure to college scouts.

These issues are just a few of the many obstacles that the conference search has created and the search itself is still going with just as much intensity as ever, but McKinley openly admits that it won't be easy. El Dorado Springs, for example has been without a conference since the 1980s, thus making the chances for Nevada's immediate placement look even more slim.

McKinley said, "If it were an easy fix, then why don't the people in El Dorado Springs have a conference?"