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In a 5-5 count of voting ballots last week, NCTL members rejected Deckerville's most recent application, which would have had the Eagles moving from the Greater Thumb Conference. Seventy-five of the schools would have had to approve the application for it to go into effect, or in this case, and 8-2 voter or better.

Dwindling enrollment numbers have made Deckerville the smallest school in the GTC, where it competes in the East Division. The school will officially move down to a Class D school in the 2007-08 school year.

Don Schelke, the high school principal and an athletic director at Deckerville, said he would reapply to the NCTL again next year.

"I believe we have the smallest junior class in the county," said Schelke. "We have 48 kids in the class. I think that's less than CPS and Peck (both members of the NCTL). That just shows how small we are getting."

The actual proposal that went to the 10 NCTL schools said the vote would be based on accepting Deckerville in for every sport except football, something that Deckerville said it would be willing to do, at least, for the first two years.

John Amend from Akron-Fairgrove, who is the NCTL secretary, said, "If we would have put football in, we might have had more Ôno' votes."

The NCTL had added, a few years back, Memphis and Dryden to the conference, putting both in a South Division with CPS, Peck and Kingston. The North Division was then comprised of North Huron, Akron-Fairgrove, Port Hope, Caseville and Owen-Gage. Both Memphis and Dryden are schools with larger enrollments than Deckerville.

Scott McVittie, who shares athletic director duties at Deckerville, knows that Eagle football teams have had a great deal of success in the GTC over the years, after leaving as a member of NCTL in the early Ô90s. However, the success in all other sports recently has been limited.

"I've got mixed feelings," said McVittie on the NCTL vote. "I really enjoy the league were in. The schools are great and the people we work with there are great. But, realistically, we're getting too small to be there. It's harder to compete."

NCTL sets winter basketball schedules

The NCTL has also announced the scheduling for the new combined boys and girls basketball seasons for the winter of 2007-08. Girls varsity and junior varsity games will be played on Mondays and Thursdays. The boys varsity and junior varsity contests will be played on Tuesdays and Friday's. The schedule will be reversed for the 2008-09 season. In the fall, varsity and junior varsity girls volleyball will be played on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

GTC to approve addition of Vassar

The GTC is expected to vote today (Wednesday) on accepting Vassar as its 14th member. Vassar, which has been in the Tri-Valley Conference for several years, will join, in the 2008-09 school year, the GTC West Division with Reese, USA, Bay City All Saints, Cass City, Bad Axe, and Elkton-Pigeon-Bayport. The East Division remains intact with Brown City, Deckerville, Marlette, Sandusky, Harbor Beach, Ubly and Mayville.

The GTC is also expected to make a final decision on the schedule for the 2007-08 boys and girls basketball seasons, which will both be held in the winter for the first time. It was determined at an earlier meeting that games will be played on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights.