Darren Kinnard/River Radio Sports Central
BRIDGEPORT — While the invitation to join the Black Diamond Conference was for football only, Red Hill athletic director Greg McKinney used a basketball term to describe the school’s decision to accept.
“Slam dunk!”
The Red Hill school board voted unanimously Monday night to accept the invitation to the Black Diamond for football, starting play next fall.
The Salukis are currently in their third year of competing as an independent, after leaving the Little Illini conference. As an independent, McKinney has had to build an entire nine-game schedule, instead of having to find 2-4 non-conference games to work around a conference schedule.
“It’s struggle to come up with games and fill our schedule,” McKinney said. “There are a couple of schools close by in the Little Illini which are easy, but with conference games in the middle of the schedule it made it difficult. We still had two open dates for next year (before joining the BDC).”
Red Hill makes 10 football teams in the Diamond, meaning it’s back to being a closed conference, with every regular season game a conference game.
“The Black Diamond is a good fit for us. The schedule is stable, and we now where we’re gonna be for years out. This checked a lot a boxes,” McKinney said, adding the schedule continuity allows him to start working ahead to line up officials much further out.
During the evaluation process, McKinney said questions were raised about travel and losing a rivalry game with nearby Lawrenceville, but in the end, “the pluses far outweighed any negatives.”
Travel is something the Salukis have become accustomed to these past couple of years as an independent. This year alone, the school located in Bridgeport which is 20 miles north of Mt. Carmel and 20 miles east of Olney, will visit Bloomfield Eastern Greene, an Indiana school located southeast of Bloomington, in addition to trips to Massac County and Carlyle.
“We’ve pretty much traveled river to river to get games,” McKinney said.
With an enrollment of 252.50, Red Hill will be the second smallest football school in the Black Diamond. The Salukis have made the 1A playoffs each of the past two seasons and are 3-1 this season after beating CZR 39-12 Saturday.
Red Hill competes in the both the Midland Trail and Little Okaw Valley for all of its other sports and has no desire to switch conferences for them. This was a football only move. The spot in the BDC became available when the current members voted to remove Vienna/Goreville from football only due to the program not fielding a varsity team in three of the past four seasons. Vienna and Goreville remain in the BDC for all other sports.
For years, Red Hill was a member of the North Egypt Conference, alongside current BDC members Carmi-White County, Fairfield, and Flora. The Salukis had Flora and another current BDC member, Edwards County, alongside in the Little Illini.
McKinney says familiarity is a good thing, and that there will “probably be a lot of old stories swapped” when those teams get together.
Red Hill will be inserted into Vienna/Goreville’s place in the schedule.
