John Raffel
Sports Scene
CARSON CITY ―Carson City-Crystal is playing its last season in the Central Michigan Athletic Conference, and the Mid-State Activities Conference will soon be getting its coveted sixth team.
The Eagles athletic director Larry Farmer announced that CC-C will be the biggest school in the MSAC when it joins Ashley, Coleman, Sacred Heart Academy, Montabella, and Vestaburg.
Current schools in the CMAC, along with CC-C, are Pewamo-Westphalia, Saranac, Fowler, Fulton, Laingsburg, Dansville, Bath, Saint Patrick, and Potterville. CC-C has struggled in the conference with football in previous years and was 1-8 this season.
“We sat down and evaluated our athletic department and the travel time and felt the MSAC would be a better fit for us,” Farmer said. “We wanted a little more flexibility in our schedule. We couldn’t play a nonleague football game and only two two [nonleague] games in basketball.”
The Eagles were inaugural members of the Central State Activities Association in 1988 before leaving that conference for the CMAC.
The MSAC has been seeking a sixth team for more than 10 years and nearly landed Breckenridge before that school opted for the TVC.
“With our departure, [the CMAC] will have little more room,” Farmer said, noting that he’s hoping to play some CMAC schools like Fulton, Fowler, and Pewamo-Westphalia on a nonleague basis.
The longest trip for CC-C in the CMAC is 68 miles one way to Dansville. In the MSAC, it will be to Coleman, 55 miles.
“Every single one of our head coaches was in full support of the change,” Farmer said.
The MSAC reportedly would like two more teams to become an eight-game conference.