Cumberland Moves To The National Trail Conference

By MATT ROBINSON

The National Trail Conference has accepted Cumberland in the conference beginning in the 2025 2026 school year in all sports except fall baseball.

NTC President Jaime VanScyoc confirmed the addition to the conference this morning with a statement of “I can officially announce that Cumberland with be joining the National Trail Conference in the 2025-2026 school year.”

VanScyoc went on to say that “Cumberland will bring a competitive edge to the conference and help strengthen the NTC across the board.” 

According to VanScyoc the National Trail Conference members felt adding Cumberland was a good fit overall as several of the schools already had them on their schedule in many of their sports. Bringing the Pirates in also balances out the number of teams in several of the sports, including basketball, which will once again have 10 teams competing in the conference tournament and regular season.

Cumberland Athletic Director Justin Roedl also believes it is a good match. “We think we will fit in well. We already play the majority of the NTC schools in most sports so there is a familiarity and working relationship already there.” 

According to Roedl, another major reason for Cumberland’s move from the Lincoln Prairie Conference to the National Trail Conference was travel. “The majority of the LPC trips are over an hour with many being an hour and a half. In the NTC, no trips will be over an hour and the majority will be 30 minutes or less” said Roedl.

Cumberland will continue to play in the Lincoln Prairie Conference next school season in all sports as well as continuing to play football in the LPC for the foreseeable future. Cumberland's football season in the fall conflicts with the National Trail Conference baseball season, also played in the fall and is the reason the Pirates will not be competing in NTC baseball.

The IHSA considered moving to districts in football versus the current playoff format, however that was not approved. That possibility though increased the discussion that had been happening for years about Cumberland moving to the NTC. The Lincoln Prairie agreeing to allow Cumberland to compete in football, but being free to move away from the conference in other sports made the move to the NTC a greater possibility.

VanScyoc indicated that the National Trail Conference and Cumberland leadership moved quickly in the last few weeks to enable Cumberland and current NTC schools to resolve scheduling issues to prepare for the addition of Cumberland to the National Trail Conference.