More LHAC fallout

As reported yesterday by "Spring Into Sports," the first annual Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference Tournament was cancelled less than two full days before the event was to kick off.
At the time, it was deemed the reason was the tournament was never approved by District 6, where seven of the nine LHAC schools that sponsor wrestling reside. Bedford and Somerset are members of District 5.
Bedford head coach Brian Creps, who took a primary role in organizing the event beginning last spring, was told that approval had taken place and things were all systems go for the conference tournament.
"We got word it was approved by District 6," Creps said on Thursday night. That led to officials and other tournament personnel being hired, food being bought, awards being purchased, and all of that will cost upwards of $1,000 according to Creps.
While he vigorously argued that it was made known that the tournament was on, the powers that be are stating otherwise. From reports, it appears as though it was the LHAC that notified Bedford of the tournament status and it's go-ahead last year. Bedford was selected to host the first one because of alphabetical order, while Cambria Heights would host next year and so on.
"From the best of our knowledge, nobody even knew about it being proposed," said District 6 vice chairman Dave Crumrine of Martinsburg Central, during a phone conversation on Friday afternoon. "There was never anything in our minutes, and I can't recall it myself. I've talked to 5 or 6 other committee members that don't remember anything. I called Ray Wotkowski (who retired last year), and he wasn't aware of it either.
"It's unfortunate, and I feel really badly for Bedford and the Laurel Highlands. When I talked to them, one of my suggestions was to go forward with the tournament, being late in the week already."
Originally, the tournament was offered as a non-team scoring event, under the presumption that points would not count towards the regular season maximum with that provision. District 5 does not count conference tournaments toward their point maximums, while schools in District 6 do.
That is what appears to be one of the sticking points in this situation, and what brought this cancellation about.
Crumrine noted that if nothing had been questioned and the tournament had gone on as scheduled, with or without the team scoring, the schools in District 6 would have had to count points toward their schedules, which would have forced more changes down the road this season as teams would have had to cancel other events.
"It's just a bad situation," Crumrine added. "Hopefully, we can put everything together on all sides to have the event next year."
When asked about the possibility of the PIAA making a statewide, across the board ruling on conference tournaments rather than leaving it up to each district, Crumrine stated he was never aware of any such conversations.