MAL reunion meet planned in Bettsville

For almost 30 years, the Midland Athletic League was a dominant conference in the area. Filled with smaller schools, it was a competitive league that had some excellent rivalries.The conference existed from 1985 to 2014, when it disbanded. Bettsville, Carey, Calvert, Hopewell-Loudon, Lakota, Mohawk, New Riegel, North Baltimore, Old Fort, Seneca East, Fremont St. Joe and St. Wendelin were original members.Members fled to create the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, some went to the Blanchard Valley Conference and others formed the Sandusky River League, which also fell apart and now those schools belong to the huge Sandusky Bay Conference's smallest tier – River Division.Of course, all schools aren't in existence anymore including Bettsville and St. Wendelin.Even being a few years removed from the league disbanding, coaches and fans still talk about the MAL and the glory years.If you want nostalgia of the MAL, Saturday's MAL reunion meet at Bettsville's Eells Park will have to suffice.Every sport has been affected by COVID-19 this season. Football is already having playoff games during a shortened regular season, all of the protocols schools have to follow and fans in attendance. It hasn't felt like a normal year.In cross country, bigger meets like the Tiffin Carnival were impossible to put on because of the size of it and the amount of people in one place on a certain day. Other meets have also been canceled, so scheduling was a headache for coaches and athletic directors. With the New London meet being canceled that was schedule for this weekend, Seneca East girls coach Matt Schock wanted his team to have the chance to run somewhere different."This season has been unique, but fortunately for us we were able to attend most of our meets, but we had to figure a way to fill this spot for New London," Schock said. "Doug Mason (SE's boys coach and athletic director) mentioned Bettsville and then Brock Cleveland (Mohawk cross country coach) mentioned the same thing, so I was seeing if we could make it happen. I got the phone number for the Bettsville mayor Scott Harrison and he said yea whatever we wanted to do was awesome. He was very helpful from that sense and it just blossomed from there. "We've talked briefly about (the MAL). As coaches, I ran in the MAL, Mason ran in it too, my two assistants coach (Mike) Farrell and Niki Schiefer also ran in the MAL, so we were all apart of it and we relay that message to the kids. What is cool we aren't only having a reunion, but it's also on the course that was home to the MAL championships for so many years. That's what makes it even more unique. It's something fun to do and you wanted to do something different."Cleveland, who also ran in the MAL, said he is excited about today's meet and that it'll bring back some memories."Everyone loved that course, so I called (Schock) back and asked him if we could put something together over there in Bettsville and at that point, it turned out us and SE, Hopewell and Old Fort got involved and at that point, we sort of decided to make it a MAL reunion thing and everyone just kind of jumped on board and ran with it," Cleveland said. "We've spent the first part of this week getting the course ready to go and I think we are all pretty excited about running there this weekend. "I think some of these kids are so far removed from it and they run against a lot of these teams every weekend. I really don't think its as big of a deal to them opposed to us coaches. I kind of loved the idea and I talked to our AD and he thought it was a cool idea, but I'm not really sure how the kids feel about it. I don't know if they really thought that much about it or it's just another race for them, but I know as far as the coaches are concerned, it brings back old rivalries and old memories. I remember running at Bettsville when I was a sophomore and the course has changed a little over the years, but I remember loving that place."Today will feature all of the former MAL schools except for Bettsville and St. Wendelin of course and Lakota and Carey, who were contracted to run somewhere else this weekend. The course will be a new experience for the competitors as many have never seen the Bettsville course, let alone run on it."I was talking to my seniors and they had never ran this course at Bettsville and I think the last time we were over there they were in the sixth grade," H-L girls coach Paul Jones said. "But I think they are kind of excited about it too just having everyone pretty much everyone there."It was very competitive. Every sport was different, but a very competitive league. Being back there … it's been a long time, but back in the day it seems like we were over there about three or four times a year. Lakota had their meet there and Old Fort did too and I think even the district meet was there a few years. We ran there quite a bit, but we haven't seen it in a while, so it'll be kind of cool getting back on it again."According to Schock, the course was still about the same as he remembered it being when he ran in the mid 2000s."Everything is pretty much amazingly the same as it was over there, just took a little bit of the last two evenings working on it with Jones, Cleveland and Paul Dymond (Old Fort junior high coach/former Bettsville coach)," Schock said. "One thing through all of this, it really just shows the comradery we have between us coaches. We're out there having a good time, working and putting this meet together. We just enjoy the sport and the fellowship between coaches and we try to teach that to our runners as well. Cross country truly is one big family. That's how we are treating this year. "Also with awards, we have Bair Brothers recreating the old MAL awards for the winners, including the old school MAL championship trophy."The meet will create some nostalgia, but it also will be a reminder of how good the league was and the rivalries within it."After things went down, if we could have predicted the future and see how everyone split, I'm not so sure everyone would've given up on the MAL.," Cleveland said. "It's a league I still have a lot of regard for. I competed in it and there are a lot of quality schools there. "I really hated to see it disband when it did, but again, for cross country, you still run against a lot of those teams every week. You kind of reminisce, but it was a really good league with good coaches and good people, so I'm looking forward to Saturday for sure."