Monmouth-Roseville Titan football will change conferences beginning in the fall of 2017. The school has accepted an invitation to join the Three Rivers Conference as a football-only member.
The new conference affiliation will allow Monmouth-Roseville to renew rivalries with some fellow former members of the Olympic conference, including Orion, Rockridge, and Sherrard.
The Three Rivers Conference extended the invitation when Amboy chose to leave.
Monmouth-Roseville Superintendent Ed Fletcher said the move to the Three Rivers will make life easier on the district's football team. He said scheduling issues will be taken care of instead of being forced to find non-conference opponents, which was the case during the school's time in the West Central Conference. That conference has just a handful of football programs.
“If you ever tried to find five games, when you’re not in a conference and you’re basically…you’re in a conference but not enough football playing teams, you’re almost like an independent and that’s very difficult,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher said the move also will also result in shorter road trips. The team has been forced to travel three or four hours for some non-conference games in recent years.
He said the eventual goal is full membership in the Three Rivers.
“I’m sure that the schools in the conference have to look at us and say “Okay, would this be a good fit for our other sports?” Those communities and those schools are looking at what’s in the best interest of their kids, just like we are ours,” Fletcher said.
