On Tuesday, the Wolverine Conference Board of Governors voted to extend an official invitation to Berrien Springs and Coloma to join the league.

Pending their administrative and Board of Education approval, they will begin league competition in the 2012-13 school year. Berrien Springs and Coloma will increase the size of the Wolverine Conference to 12 teams joining Edwardsburg, which was added as the 10th school in April replacing Gull Lake.

The Board of Governors is very excited to add these two schools to the league. They know that they have quality programs and will be a nice fit with the existing schools. Their philosophy of the role of educational athletics is in line with the conference and they have similar athletic offerings as the current league schools.

The board has been reviewing a wide range of options over the past year from maintaining the size of the league at 10 schools to expanding to as many as twenty schools. After the addition of Edwardsburg, discussions continued and it was decided that expanding to 12 schools would further enhance the opportunities that we could provide our student-athletes and school districts. We are looking forward to beginning the process of developing league formats and schedules.

For the 2011-12 school year, Wolverine Conference members include Allegan, Comstock, Dowagiac, Otsego, Paw Paw, Plainwell, South Haven, Three Rivers and Vicksburg. Next year, Gull Lake will continue to play in the Wolverine in football only. The league, formed in 1952, has predominantly been an eight-school league until the addition of Dowagiac and Paw in 2006. Charter members of the league were Allegan, Otsego, Plainwell, Portage, South Haven and Western State High (Kalamazoo).