By David Fleet
Editor
Goodrich- The Martians may soon have a new sports home.
An application has been made aimed at the 2019-20 school year for the Martians, along with Lake Fenton and Cournna schools to join the Flint Metro League.
Dave Davis, athletic director said following the March Flint Metro League meeting, Goodrich along with Corunna and Lake Fenton received an invitation from Flint Metro League President and Brandon High School Principal Dan Stephens to make the application. On April 13 the applications were sent and April 20 the Flint Metro League committee gathered and agreed to move forward with the process.
The move is necessary following a recent shake-up in the Genesee Area Conference.
Since 1978 the Martians have been members of the GAC which today consists of 17 area schools divided up into two divisions—Red and Blue— based on enrollment and competitive balance. However, in 2016 a group of six GAC schools, Byron, Durand, Lakeville, Montrose, Mt. Morris and New Lothrop, gathered independently without consulting all members of the conference and formed a new Mid-Michigan Activities Conference beginning with the 2019-20 school year. The new conference will also include the Ovid-Elsie and Chesaning school districts.
The move left Goodrich, Corunna and Lake Fenton as the only schools in the upper or larger enrollment Red Division of the GAC with between 550 and 750 students.
Since that time the Martians have been seeking a league and moved forward when the Flint Metro League asked for an application.
At the May Flint Metro League meeting the board is expected to request site visits to the new schools.

“The purpose of the visits would be to evaluate program offerings,” said Davis. “The recommendation would then go to a June 21 meeting for a final decision.”
The Flint Metro League includes, Brandon, Clio, Fenton, Flushing, Holly, Kearsley, Linden, Owosso and Swartz Creek. If approved for the three new schools a total of 12 teams would be in the Flint Metro League.
“Some discussion was also made to look for two larger schools,” he said. “That would be 14 schools in the Flint Metro League.”
Davis suggested the Flint Metro League be divided into two divisions based on MHSAA enrollments.
“It’s only conjecture at this point,” he said. “The other idea was to divide the schools by competitive balance. But that often causes a quagmire. Most of the schools would be within the same proximity so drive time would be reasonable.”
Brandon should be in the same division as Goodrich given their current enrollment.
“If not, we’d always try to schedule games with Brandon,” he said. “I’m 100 percent behind this as is the school board.”