Big Northern invites Rock Falls

The Big Northern Conference has invited Rock Falls High School to join the athletics league beginning in the 2011-2012 school year.

The invitation, officially approved at a Thursday meeting of Big Northern officials, came as no surprise. 

Rock Falls sent a letter of interest to the league late last year. The school will consider the invitation at its board meeting next Wednesday.

The Big Northern started searching for a new member after Hampshire High School informed the league it would leave for the Fox Valley Conference in 2011-12.

Rock Falls and Marian Central Catholic in Woodstock were the two schools that responded to the BNC by its December deadline. Rock Falls was the only one to receive an invitation, according to conference president and North Boone athletic director Dale Purvis.

"Rock Falls fits in with the conference very well," Purvis said, "as far as the school size and the success they've had in their programs."

Purvis said the only issue some BNC schools had with Rock Falls was its distance from some of the schools in the BNC East Division, which includes Burlington Central, Harvard, Marengo, North Boone and Richmond-Burton.

The West Division, which Rock Falls would likely join, includes Byron, Genoa-Kingston, Oregon, Rockford Lutheran, Stillman Valley and Winnebago.

Purvis also said the Big Northern would like Rock Falls to add soccer, a sport that all current BNC schools offer.

Rock Falls currently competes in the North Central Illinois Conference, which it has been a member of since 1942. Last summer, the seven largest schools in the NCIC decided to form a new conference with five members of the Western Sun.

Current NCIC member Kewanee will leave for the Three Rivers after this school year, to be replaced by St. Bede in all sports but football. If Rock Falls decides to join the Big Northern, that would leave the NCIC with four football schools: Hall, Illinois Valley Central, Mendota and Princeton.