REALIGNMENT: Joplin athletic director Matt Hiatt talks COC shakeup

As the new terrain of the Central Ozark Conference begins to take shape, SoMo Sports had a chance to have a conversation with Joplin High School athletic director Matt Hiatt to get a feel for things from a local perspective.

Following quite a bit of shakeup over the last several weeks, or months depending on if you’ve been involved with the situation, there looks to be a set path for the COC to continue next season with 14 teams, 12 of which will compete in football against each other. 

“We’re happy that we’ve been able to solidify our conference and continue to move together as a group of schools,” Hiatt said when asked about Joplin’s stance on the realignment. “Obviously, as we moved through this process with schools identifying what was important to them as far as the realignment goes—travel is something that is a top priority that is on our list. We’re hoping that as a conference, we can structure our setups in various different sports to limit travel as much as possible.”

The COC teams remaining in the conference after the departure of Branson and Carl Junction earlier in the fall are Carthage, Joplin, Neosho, Nixa, Ozark, Republic, Webb City and Willard. Joining the COC in all sports will be Glendale, Kickapoo, Lebanon, Waynesville, while Parkview and Springfield Central will compete in every sport but football.

“When you’re adding schools such as Lebanon, Waynesville, Parkview, Central, Kickapoo and Glendale, that only enhances the competition level in our sports,” Hiatt said about the benefits of the new additions to COC. “While all schools may struggle at a particular sport and are good at others, across the board this conference is going to be extremely competitive. These 14 schools are going to bring a lot to the table in terms of athletic programs.”

Of course, there are new concerns to deal with from several standpoints. For the ADs and coaches, with 12 teams in football and 14 teams in the rest of the sports, playing every team in the conference would be very demanding, difficult to do or even impossible in some cases. While nothing is set in stone, there is a preference and belief that the conference will be divided up into divisions based on factors such as location and school size and that the majority of the conference games on the schedule for each sport would be against divisional teams. There is also a possibility of neutral-site games, but that wouldn’t be viable in every sport.

“Everything is still in the works, but I think the thing we would like to see is that there are divisions set up,” Hiatt said. “Obviously, there would need to be some crossover among those divisions, but we would like to see geography being a huge factor in how those divisions are set up so that we are not routinely putting our kids on a bus to some of those farther schools such as Lebanon and Waynesville. … There are going to be times when we have to go to those schools, however, we believe it is in our best interest to structure our conference in a way where that’s not happening consistently.”

For football in particular, five games would be scheduled within the division (if two six-team divisions) and the remaining games on the schedule would be crossover games with the other division to ensure all games would be within the conference.

Divisions within the conference would not only help with the scheduling, but would also ease the burden of student-athletes either being forced to leave school early or get home extremely late by potentially avoiding road trips of 120 miles or more multiple times in each sport, which is the biggest concern for parents of student-athletes on the far east and west sides of the conference.

Of course, if you decide to have divisions—regardless of how many you ultimately have—the question of how you decide a conference champion is brought up. 

“That is all still being discussed, and there are a lot of things that have to be worked out—how are we going to set up our divisions? Are those teams going to be set up based upon geography and enrollment, and how is that going to look?” Hiatt said about the possibility of division winners playing for a conference championship. “I think something that is important to all of us is that we maintain some sort of semblance of a conference championship and the ability to select our kids as all-conference in some fashion. So, there are a lot of things to work through, and those are things that are important to all schools.”

All of this reshuffling can be confusing, and no one knows that more than the athletic directors, who tend to act as middle men when conferences are tasked with adding schools. The final decisions are made between the superintendents of the conference schools, who take input from the local school board and the athletic directors, who take input from their coaches, principals, parents and student-athletes. 

When asked if the COC, or any of the local conferences for that matter, are set for the time being, Hiatt believed there could be more movement in the near future as schools figure out what is important to them.

“I would not be surprised if you continue to see some movement over the next few years,” Hiatt said. “I think every school is being asked to evaluate what is important to them. Whether that’s travel, enrollment or success. The answer to those questions by each school is going to guide them to what is best for them.” 

As far as the Eagles were concerned, Hiatt was concrete on Joplin’s stance in the COC.

“I can only speak for Joplin—being able to move into the COC and renew our local rivalries with the schools that are close to us is something that was huge to us and want to see that continue as best it can,” he said. “As far as that goes, we want to be local and limit travel like we used to have to do in the Ozark Conference. We are a proud member of the COC and believe it is the best fit for us.”