Carroll County will withdraw from the Monocacy Valley Athletic League effective June 30, Carroll County supervisor of athletics Jim Rodriguez confirmed Tuesday.
The MVAL is made up of schools from Carroll, Frederick and Washington counties. Two weeks ago, the league's board of control voted in favor of conference realignment based on student enrollment. Proposals for the same initiative in August and November were denied by the board, Rodriguez said. Carroll voted against the change each time, he said.
"They felt strongly about things being enrollment-based in terms of alignment," Rodriguez said. "Carroll County Public Schools administrators, principals and athletic directors did not believe that it was in the best interest of the students."
Frederick County supervisor of athletics Kevin Kendro said he thought the vote might have been reason enough for the move.
"I guess Carroll County was just not happy with that," he said.
Kendro said he first learned of Carroll's decision in an email sent by North Carroll principal Kim Dolch, who is the president of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association.
Washington County supervisor of athletics Eric Michael said the league could very well be on hold while the process plays out.
"We'll be looking at our options, but we fully expect a full slate of games next season," Michael said. "If it's still a viable option for us, we'll do what we can to stay in it."
The move is expected to drastically affect scheduling for Carroll teams, who have largely filled the non-county portion of their schedules with other MVAL schools.
Without being tied to Frederick and Washington counties, Carroll schools could theoretically seek out matchups against schools from Baltimore, Harford, and Howard counties, among others that make sense either geographically or by enrollment.
Rodriguez said there was still much to be determined regarding scheduling.
Carroll County has been associated with the MVAL in its current form since the 2003-2004 school year, when the original MVAL — founded in 1973 — merged with the Central Maryland Conference (established in 1987) to create a 22-team "super conference."
The MVAL has gone through a few makeovers in the past decade but had continued to include all the original schools while adding new schools from Carroll and Frederick counties as they were built.