TOLEDO — Most of the sports programs at Cumberland High School will soon have a new home in the National Trail Conference.
The move, which won’t occur until the 2025-26 academic year, will see the Pirates departing the Lincoln Prairie Conference (LPC). Cumberland High School was one of 15 schools that broke off from the Little Okaw Valley Conference in 2009 to establish the LPC as an original member.
Sullivan joined the conference in 2023 after departing from the Central Illinois Conference. In the same year, the football program for Nokomis joined the conference, as its home for all other sports programs, the MSM Conference does not include football. Of the existing MSM conference schools, Buffalo Tri-City co-ops with LPC member Sangamon Valley, Kincaid South Fork and Edinburg co-op with Morrisonville, as well as Pawnee in a co-op with Raymond Lincolnwood to play eight-man football in the 8-Man South Conference, Mt. Olive co-ops with South Central Conference member school Litchfield, and Franklin and Waverly co-op with Sangamo Conference member school New Berlin.
However, the move excludes the football program, which will remain a part of the conference as a partial member. Nokomis is the only other member school with partial membership status.
A major reason why Cumberland cannot pull completely out of the conference is because none of the member schools in the National Trail Conference play football — or haven’t had a football program in some time, whether standalone or as part of a co-op.
Cumberland will join fellow Cumberland County school Neoga and member schools based in Clay, Effingham, Fayette, and Shelby counties.
“Cumberland’s departure isn’t expected to affect the LPC in any way,” said LPC president Matthew Shoaff, who is the principal at Okaw Valley High School.
Shoaff noted that the conference isn’t anticipating any new members at this time. Furthermore, he’s not aware of any schools potentially leaving the conference.
Because Cumberland intends to play football this fall, they are ineligible to play National Trail conference games for its fall baseball season.
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Jake Leonard, a broadcast media and journalism veteran, is the editor-in-chief of Heartland Newsfeed. Leonard is also GM and program director of Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network, wrestling editor and contributing writer for Ambush Sports, a contributing writer for My Sports Vote and Midwest Sports Network, and a former contributor to Bleacher Report and Overtime Heroics. He resides at home in Nokomis, Ill. with his dog Buster.
