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Duchesne High School Welcomed Into Archdiocesan Athletic Association Conference

The future of the Gateway Athletic Conference is still unclear.

Sometimes the departure of a high school from an athletic conference can be caused by irreconcilable differences. 

That’s not the case, though, when it comes to the Duchesne High School Pioneers impending departure from the Gateway Athletic Conference (GAC).

Set to move to the Archdiocesan Athletic Association (AAA) starting in the 2012-2013 school year, the Pioneers have just more than a year left before they leave the GAC for good.

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So what led to this split? In a word, size.

While Duchesne has around 500 students, other GAC schools have anywhere from 800 to over 2,000. This disparity in numbers puts the Pioneers at a competitive disadvantage.

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“This thought process has been going on for years, and it came to fruition this year,” said Duchesne Athletics Director David Turner. “It’s basically a numbers game. At our school, we’re a minimum of 300 or 350 students smaller than the next closest school. From the largest schools, we’re about 1,500 or 1,600 students smaller.”

The decision to leave the GAC may have been an obvious one for Duchesne, but the question of where they would land wasn’t so easy.

“We considered various conferences,” said Turner. “The AAA was just the best fit when we looked at our situation and desire to level the playing field for our student athletes.”

The largest school in the AAA is St. Dominic, which has around 730 students. Christian High School in O'Fallon will enter the conference at the same time as Duchesne as likely the smallest school, with around 300 students. Saint Francis Borgia High School, which fits in somewhere in between, will also move to the AAA.

Meanwhile, the decision to make the move seems to have gone over well at Duchesne High School.

“Parents that we’ve talked to and the athletes, they’re not overly concerned,” Turner said. “They’re going to play whatever team walks in the door. We’ve gotten very positive feedback from our parents. We also involved our booster club in the decision making process, and have their support at well. This will be good for us. We probably should have done it a few years back.”

The Pioneers are moving into a conference with arguably their top rival over the year, the St. Dominic Crusaders.

“We play them in everything but football right now, and even that, we’ve tried but it hasn’t been possible with conference and district schedules,” said St. Dominic Athletic Director Dennis Graser. “We have a great rivalry that is very competitive in every sport. It’s a natural rivalry, a great fit for them, and they bring a lot to the conference. They have quality programs, quality coaches and quality kids in every sport.”

Duchesne's addition is welcomed.

“It’s exciting for the whole conference,” Graser said. “We know them, we know how good they are and how competitive they are. Not all of the AAA schools see them as much as we do, so now they will see too. This is a great fit.”

The GAC faces a drop in membership in the fall of 2012. But GAC president and St. Charles West Athletic Director Terry Oetting says he understands why the move had to be made.

“We don’t like to see them go, they’re a charter member of the conference,” said Oetting. “But we can certainly understand. They’re not getting any bigger, and most of the schools in the GAC are a decent size.”

Oetting added that he doesn’t anticipate the GAC adding any schools right now. But Oetting said the conference may grow if a member school district, such as the Wentzville School District, were to build a third high school.

Nothing, though, is set in stone. The Orchard Farm Board of Education in January discussed whether the district would be interested in moving to the GAC. 

“Right now we’re in the process of reviewing things as far as growth,” he added. “We’re getting everybody’s thoughts, and as of right now nothing has been determined.”

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