The Mountain Valley Conference (MVC) was an athletic conference consisting of six large

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

s and four school districts from Monroe County and the

Lehighton Area School District The Lehighton Area School District is school district located just north of the Blue Mountain range the Lehigh River in Carbon County, in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The district is composed of four communities which are ...

from Carbon County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It was part of District XI of the

Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc., also known by its acronymn PIAA, is one of the governing bodies of high school and middle school athletics for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. The PIAA's main ...

(PIAA). In 2014, its teams were mostly assimilated into the 18-team league of large eastern and northeastern Pennsylvania high schools known as the

Eastern Pennsylvania Conference The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (known informally as EPC, EPC18 and East Penn Conference) is an athletic conference consisting of 18 large high schools from Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, and Pike counties in the Lehigh Valley and Pocono ...

History

There had been widespread discussion about high school league realignment in the

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the no ...

starting in late 1990 and early 1991. In the fall of 1993, the Mountain Valley Conference was formed. The new league included all the public high schools in Monroe County at the time: Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, Pocono Mountain, and Pleasant Valley High Schools, plus Nazareth and Northampton High Schools from Northampton County. Lehighton High School also later joined the new league, giving it an initial membership of seven schools when competition began in the 1994-95 school year. After the 1997-98 school year, the MVC added more schools in Lehigh and Northampton Counties: Easton, Freedom,

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

, Parkland, and

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...

all joined the league. After 2001-02, the seven schools in Lehigh and Northampton Counties left the league to help form the

Lehigh Valley Conference The Lehigh Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference, known informally as the Lehigh Valley Conference or LVC, was an athletic conference consisting of 12 of the largest high schools from Lehigh and Northampton counties in the Lehigh Valley region ...

East Stroudsburg Area School District East Stroudsburg Area School District is a large, rural public school district located in Monroe and Pike Counties the Poconos of northeast Pennsylvania. The District is one of the 500 public school districts of Pennsylvania. East Stroudsburg A ...

opened a new high school near the turn of the century, and

Pocono Mountain School District Pocono Mountain School District (PMSD for short) is a large, rural public school district located in Monroe County in Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020–21 school year, the district had an enrollment of 8,290 students in its schools, a ...

opened a new high school in 2002; both new schools were added to the MVC for the start of the 2002-03 school year. MVC membership has been stable from 2002 to 2012. In 2012,

Allentown Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them: *Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California *Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County *Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Taze ...

's two large public schools, Dieruff High School and

William Allen High School William Allen High School is one of two large, urban public high schools of the Allentown School District in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The school provides public education for grades 9 through 12. William Allen High School is located at 106 North 1 ...

, joined the MVC as associate members for football only for a four-year term. All schools voted to allow both Allentown teams into the conference with only Lehighton voting against it. In the 2014-2015 season, six Monroe County schools became part of the

, expanding that conference to a large 18-team super conference, which was subsequently renamed the

. Lehighton left the Mountain Valley Conference in most sports and now participate in the Schuylkill League. They play football in the Anthracite Football League and act as an independent team in

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

High schools

The seven high school teams that previously comprised the Mountain Valley Conference (and their locations) were: * East Stroudsburg South Cavaliers ( East Stroudsburg). * East Stroudsburg North Timberwolves ( Bushkill) * Pocono Mountain East Cardinals ( Swiftwater) * Pocono Mountain West Panthers (

Pocono Summit Pocono Summit is a unincorporated community and census-designated place located in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. Parts of Pocono Summit are located in the municipalities of Coolbaugh and Tobyhanna townships. Geography Pocono Summit is located at ...

) *

Stroudsburg Stroudsburg is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, Monroe County, Pennsylvania. It lies within the Pocono Mountains, Poconos region, approximately five miles (8 km) from the Delaware Water Gap at the confluence ...

Mountaineers (

) * Pleasant Valley Bears ( Brodheadsville) * Lehighton Indians ( Lehighton) Football only: *

Allen Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Unive ...

Canaries (

) * Dieruff Huskies (Allentown)

District

The Mountain Valley Conference was part of District XI of the PIAA.

Mountain Valley Conference

National Football League (NFL)

* Kyshoen Jarrett, former strong safety,

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

(East Stroudsburg South High School) * James Mungro, former

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

, Indianapolis Colts and Super Bowl XLI champion (East Stroudsburg South High School) * Chris Neild, former

nose tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the l ...

, Houston Texans and

(Stroudsburg High School)

Arena Football League (AFL)

Kevin Nagle Kevin Nagle (born April 30, 1975) is an American football fullback/linebacker who played for the Colorado Crush in the Arena Football League. After the AFL suspended its 2009 season, Nagle retired and is currently an assistant coach for Pleas ...

, former fullback and

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

Colorado Crush The Colorado Crush were an arena football team based in Denver, Colorado. They began play as a 2003 Arena Football League expansion team. The Crush played in the Central Division of the American Conference until the Arena Football League suspen ...

and

Orlando Predators The Orlando Predators were a professional arena football team based in Orlando, Florida and member of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team was most recently owned by Orlando Predators LLC, a company owned by David A. Siegel, and played its ...

(Pleasant Valley High School)

References

External links

Mountain Valley Conference
archived former website {{Mountain Valley Conference (Pennsylvania) Monroe County, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania high school sports conferences Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association