The Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference was established in 1941 as a public school league to give those schools an in-season championship for which to compete. In 1990-1991 private schools were invited at join. The NKAC Conference encompasses all sports in your school, with Bowling being the most recent sport added. The three divisions were formed by enrollment, with the member schools having the option to move up a division if it was thought that their school would better benefit by the move. All sports in a school must compete at the same level, which will explain some of the moves taking place this coming season. Holy Cross, NCC, and St. Henry opted to play up in Division II. We joined as a Division III team and competed with Beechwood, Bellevue, Ludlow, Dayton, Silver Grove and Cov Latin. Calvary Christian, Villa Madonna, and Heritage Academy later joined. We were the Division II Champions in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996.
With the arrival of Nathan Seiter and his teammates, the decision was correctly made to elevate our program to Division II. Beechwood became the Alpha Division III team and won the conference title for the next few years until they too joined Division II. With the elevation of Beechwood, the Division III teams adopted their own identity. Realizing that they were not regional contenders, they placed a strong emphasis on competing for the Division III championship. They set up a format where they would play each other home and away, and held a mid-season Division III Conference tournament. This format has served them well for the best part of two decades.
In 1997-98, Holmes, who had been a major contender for Division I championships and have since won a State Championship, announced that they were petitioning to move to Division II. While Holmes was flourishing as a basketball program, their girls’ program, and their other sports were unable to compete at the highest level. Holmes now factors large in the upcoming conference realignment. Newport now finds themselves in a similar situation. Both Holmes and Newport have petitioned to join Division III, which will totally disrupt the format that has worked for Division III teams since the turn of the century. It is safe to say that Holmes and Newport will not play the double round-robin schedule, nor welcome a mid-season Division III tournament. At least for the short-term, Newport and Holmes will beome the dominant entities in D-III on the Boys side, whereas their Girls’ teams will welcome the class relief.
The changes don’t stop there. Highlands will elevate from Division II to Division I, and Boone County will now join us in Division II from Division I.
Since joining Division II, Brossart boys have won the conference race in 2005, 2007, and 2009.
Unfortunately, over the years the NKAC has lost much of its luster, with other priorities such as district seeding games, and All “A” and All “2A” competitions taking precedence. Unless you are undefeated after a few weeks of conference play, it is pretty much forgotten. Most teams don’t even complete their full slate of conference games. I doubt that many of our present day players could name the member teams of the conference, and I suspect if I don’t identify an upcoming game as a conference game, our readership wouldn’t know it.