By Rick Schulte

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Detroit -- For many mid-sized schools, finding good competition and a good league fit has been a challenge throughout the Detroit area.

The Catholic High School League, however, has come up with a solution that will not only help those schools, but change the landscape of the league itself. This year, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood and Macomb Lutheran North have been added to the Catholic League roster as associate members.

As associate members, neither school is currently eligible to compete in a Catholic League championship game. However, there are many benefits to all involved.

“It’s a win-win for everyone,” said Vic Michaels, director of athletics for the Catholic League. “In the area, this has been a problem for Class B schools, and the bigger Class C schools, too. It’s been hard for those schools to find quality opponents that are from the same size school. A lot of times, they would either compete with schools much bigger or much smaller.”

Dearborn Divine Child, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep and Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard are the long Class B schools in the Catholic League. Adding Cranbrook and Lutheran North to the mix will make a difference. Those five schools will now compete in football in the same division, the AA, and will be together for some others sports, too.

The Central Division will now have all of the larger schools together, while the remaining smaller schools are split geographically into the Intersectional 1 and 2 divisions.

“It will also make a difference in the other sports,” Michaels said. Cranbrook has an outstanding reputation in many sports, including soccer, swimming, tennis and golf. Lutheran North won Metro Conference championships last season in five sports.

While the associate members aren’t able to play for championships, they now get the advantage of a full schedule with established programs. (The Metro Conference, the former home of Cranbrook and Lutheran North, disbanded after the spring sports season). There is also an opportunity to reap the benefits of the Prep Bowl experience.

In the past, a Wild Card game between the third- and fourth-place teams in the Central Division, was played as the middle game of the Prep Bowl triple-header. There is an opportunity for Cranbrook or Lutheran North to play in the Wild Card game -- which, technically, is not a title competition.