Big changes are coming to the Tri-Metro Conference. Three large new schools, Academy of Holy Angels, Fridley High School, and Columbia Heights High School, will be added to the Tri-Metro Conference, despite opposition from the current teams. The opposition to this huge growth in the size of the Tri-Metro Conference prompted St. Paul Academy and Summit School, as well as five other schools (Blake, Breck, Minnehaha Academy, Mounds Park Academy, and Providence Academy) to leave the conference at the end of the school year.

“It just seemed very unwieldy and did not seem like a cohesive conference anymore. For the best interest of the student athletes here and the program overall we thought it best to go independent,” SPA Director of Athletics Peter Sawkins said.

Most athletes agree that the change will be for the best. Junior and three sport athlete Kevin Patterson said, “I think it is a good idea because the schools that are joining would most likely beat us.”

Junior Julia Lagos, a soccer and basketball player, looks forward the new freedom that leaving provides teams. “[In the Tri-Metro Conference] you play teams that aren’t necessarily as competitive, just because you have to,” Lagos said. Now, she said, “we can go out of our way and schedule against other good teams so that we’re playing to improve ourselves for sections.”

One consequence of leaving the Tri-Metro Conference is that there will no longer be conference level awards such as all-conference player or rankings of which school in the conference is doing best. However, it might not be a such a bad thing.

Lagos is undecided about not getting awards or rankings. “It’s kind of sad because I was hoping to get some kind of award my senior year,” she said. At the same time, “I feel like that takes some of the pressure off.”

“It’s going to have a very positive outcome for us; it will allow us greater flexibility in terms of our ability to schedule games against schools we want to play from a competitive perspective but also from a traditional rivalry perspective,” Sawkins said.