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Unless the plan falls apart in the final stages, Davie’s middle schools will turn the clock back to 1993 this fall and join a strong conference with schools from Rowan and Iredell counties.

From 1993-94 through 2006-07, North Davie and South Davie – Ellis did not open until 2007 – competed in the Piedmont Conference with China Grove, Corriher-Lipe, Erwin, Knox, North Rowan, Southeast and West Rowan. Back then, they also competed against Mooresville, Kannapolis, Concord, J.N. Fries and Northwest Cabarrus.

But after including Davie County’s middle schools for 14 years, the Rowan County schools pulled out and formed a new league, leaving Davie in the cold.

The North, South and Ellis coaches and athletic directors were blindsided by that move and they had to regroup. They landed in a conference with Davidson County in 2007-08. It was a solid league, but that only lasted a few years.

For the last 10-plus years, it’s not been fun for North, South and Ellis to find opponents. A new conference was formed a few years ago, the Central Carolina Conference. Davie’s three schools hooked up six private schools – Summit, Wesleyan Christian Academy, Canterbury, North Carolina Leadership Academy, Phoenix Academy and Millennium Charter.

If things come together like Davie County Schools Superintendent Jeff Wallace hopes, Davie County will join a conference with all public schools starting next fall.

“The conference contract has been composed and we are awaiting the final draft,” Wallace said. “I plan to share the information with the board (on April 11), and then middle school principals and ADs will work on communicating with students and families. Unless things have changed, there will be two divisions: The three Davie County middle schools, two Mooresville middle schools and West Rowan. The other division will be the other Rowan middle schools. Non-divisional contests will be with the other teams in the conference. There will be some sports that have to change seasons as it used to be.”

Wallace said a final decision should come soon.