Headquarters Pennsylvania, United States | ||
The Mountain Valley Conference (MVC) was an athletic conference consisting of 6 large high schools and 4 School Districts from Monroe County and the Lehighton Area School District from Carbon County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It was part of District XI of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA).
Contents
History
There had been widespread discussion about high school league realignment in the Lehigh Valley starting in late 1990 or early 1991. It was in the fall of 1993 that the formation of the Mountain Valley Conference was announced. The new league comprised all the public high schools in Monroe County at the time: Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, Pocono Mountain, and Pleasant Valley High Schools, plus Nazareth and Northampton High Schools from Northampton County. Lehighton Area High School would also join the new league, giving it an initial membership of seven schools when competition began with the 1994-95 school year.
After the 1997-98 school year, the MVC added more schools in Lehigh and Northampton Counties: Easton Area, Freedom, Liberty, Parkland, and Whitehall all joined the league. After 2001-02 the seven schools in Lehigh and Northampton Counties left the league to help form the Lehigh Valley Conference. East Stroudsburg school district had opened a new high school near the turn of the century, and Pocono Mountain district opened a new high school in 2002; both new schools were added to the MVC for the start of the 2002-03 school year. MVC membership has been stable from 2002 to 2012.
Starting in 2012, Dieruff High School and William Allen High School joined the MVC as associate members for football only. All schools voted to allow both Allentown teams into the conference with only Lehighton voting against it. The teams will stay a part of the Mountain Valley Conference for a maximum of four years.
Starting in the 2014-2015 school year, the six Monroe County schools became part of the Lehigh Valley Conference, expanding that conference to a large 18-team "super-conference", which was renamed the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. Lehighton left the Mountain Valley Conference in most sports and now participate in the Schuylkill League. They play football in the Anthracite Football League and act as an independent team in field hockey.
High schools
The 7 high school teams in the Mountain Valley Conference (and their locations) were:
Football only:
District
The Mountain Valley Conference was part of District XI of the PIAA.