Tradition with the long-standing “Grand River Conference” name through the small schools of northwest Missouri won the day on Tuesday at Albany High School, with the nine schools that had split away from the 16-school GRC earlier this spring voting to identify their new conference as “Grand River Conference West”.
In the 16-school GRC, there had been eight schools on the western side of the landscape, with eight more on the east. However, the recent trend of school districts choosing to move from 11-man football to the 8-man ranks hit Princeton, as the Tigers voted to move into the 8-man level for 2023, and with that decision, creating an eight-team division in the GRC for football, and nine for other sports. In football, conference members North Harrison and Pattonsburg have a cooperative agreement with Gilman City of the HDC Conference, shrinking the number in that sport down to eight, with sports, including basketball, that see the Shamrocks and the Panthers fielding separate teams, featuring nine squads.
Princeton, this fall, will embark on a vastly different looking football schedule that will include GRC West foes Pattonsburg, Albany, King City, North Andrew, St. Joseph Christian, Stanberry, and Worth County.
The seven other “Eastern” schools that created the 16-school GRC created their own conference to begin play this fall, as Trenton joins Polo, Maysville, South Harrison, Gallatin, Milan, and Putnam County in various competitions. That group of schools, in staying with tradition, voted to keep the “Grand River Conference” moniker, but without an “East” designation. In 2024, the GRC will increase its overall number to nine, as Marceline makes the move from the Lewis & Clark Conference, while Brookfield enters the fray from the Clarence Cannon Conference.
