ERIE — Joining a new league for the 2025-26 school year, the Erie Red Devils are leaving the Tri-Valley League to become members of the Three Rivers League.
“We’re happy to see them come in. We think they’ll be very competitive,” said Mike Kastle, the commissioner of the Three Rivers League. “They’ll be in the middle of the league with population, so it’s a great fit for them.”
At 140 students, Erie’s enrollment put it in the middle of the pack in Class 2A and the smallest school in the Tri-Valley League.
That’s what triggered Erie’s desire to switch leagues. “Our basic motivation was the loss of enrollment. We had a large senior class of over 50 that’ll be replaced by fewer than 30,” said Rob Schneeberger, the principal at Erie High School. “It’s been going down the last several years. We were already the lowest in the Tri-Valley.”
Erie will be the 15th school in the Three Rivers, making it one of the largest leagues in Kansas.
“That’s a selling point,” Kastle said. “Everybody can fill their schedules before they even get started. Adding a school makes it easier.”
The Three Rivers has a range of classifications represented — Jayhawk-Linn was Class 3A in football while the league also had several 6-Man schools.
“I think it’ll be a better competitive situation for us simply because of the size of the school we’ll be in,” Schneeberger said. “We were eight of eight in the Tri-Valley. But we’ll be four of 15 in the Three Rivers. So you would think and hope, competitive-wise, it would shake out. It’s not always the case. But we’ve also had success in a few sports in the Tri-Valley. Sustaining that is a tougher deal when you don’t have as many kids to choose from.”
Erie has had spot success in a few sports in the Tri-Valley League, with boys basketball and wrestling winning league crowns in the last several years. But football and most other sports have struggled.
“There’s no problem with competitive balance in football,” Kastle added. “There’s a concern in basketball. There’s a wide-ranging of enrollments. But they all get along well and take care of each other. I don’t think adding Erie changes anything with how the league functions.”
Erie started the process of moving leagues last year.
While competitive balance, along with travel, was a selling point for Erie moving to the Three Rivers, sustaining JV programs will be a concern.
“The coaches are looking forward to it. The primary concern is how our junior varsity teams will be doing with schedules,” Schneeberger said. “We’re not guaranteed that we’ll have enough kids year after year of sustaining JV programs. But we know there are a good number of teams in the Three Rivers that have historically not had enough. So they’re concerned about the consistency of JV games being available.”
With Erie joining the Three Rivers, an annual rivalry with St. Paul, just miles down the road, will be revived.
“It goes beyond that. It’s a no-brainer. Because of the proximity of some other schools to us, the creation of several rivalries will be there,” Schneeberger said.
“We’re very close to St. Paul and Uniontown and Marmaton Valley and Altoona. I came from Oswego, so that’ll be a rivalry. Northeast isn’t that far away. The number of schools in our proximity creates rivalries. The schools that were close to us in the Tri-Valley outnumbered us by far, so it was hard to stay competitive.”
