One of the founding members of the Mid-Hoosier Conference is coming back after it left the conference 26 years ago.
Brown County will return to the MHC at the start of the 2026-27 school year. The addition of the Eagles will bring the membership up to eight schools, which is a number most conferences prefer.
Brown County will join Hauser, Edinburgh, South Decatur, North Decatur, Southwestern (Shelby), Waldron and Morristown. This is the first change in membership since Indian Creek, Eastern Hancock and Knightstown departed in 2016. Since then, the MHC has been a seven-school conference.
The MHC was formed in 1964 by Brown County, Hauser, Southwestern, Waldron and Triton Central. The Eagles left the MHC in 1999 to join the Western Indiana Conference.
Two big factors that led to Brown County making the decision were geography and school size. The Eagles have dropped in enrollment the past decade, going from a Class 3A school to being down to 488 students in the last IHSAA enrollment count in 2024, which puts them in the middle of Class 2A.
“We are the farthest school to the east in the WIC, and with the addition of Vincennes Lincoln joining the WIC next year, that was going to add and put us at four two-hour bus trips,” Brown County athletics director Josh Bowlds said. “So just from a travel standpoint alone, that was going to be pretty challenging, and we’re already playing those schools on Saturdays because it is hard to send kids two hours away on a school night.
“From a competitive standpoint and the size school, obviously Brown County’s enrollment has gone down over the last 10 to 15 years. We were once about 800 kids and now down to a little less than 500 kids,” he added. “We’re wanting to compete against schools more our size, more our similar type communities. We explored the option of going back to the Mid-Hoosier, and they welcomed us back and were excited to have us.”
Traditionally, it would be close to a two-year notice for schools to change conferences, but Bowlds said WIC agreed to let them go early.
“We approached the WIC about trying to go ahead and do this next school year, and as much as we don’t like to drive to West Vigo and West Vigo doesn’t like to drive to Brown County, they understood and were willing to let us go early, and so I think it just worked out for everybody,” Bowlds said.
Since Brown County plays most of the MHC schools on most of its sports schedules, the transition should be smooth for the Eagles without any hiccups.
“Another thing that is going to make the transition kind of seamless for us is that we already play pretty much all the Mid-Hoosier schools in most of our sports,” Bowlds said. “I’ve worked with those guys in that regard already. They’ve been great to work with. I know they were excited to have us back. It puts them back at a nice even number of eight.”
Last week, the Brown County School Board voted in favor to move forward with a $5.9 million athletic field project that will involve a new turf football and soccer field. There also will be new bleachers, scoreboard, press box, post concrete, concession stands and restroom facilities.
The field sits in a flood zone next to a creek. The field is going to shift slightly to the south and west and be raised 5 1/2 feet to ensure the new turf field doesn’t flood.
Bowlds said the project should start sometime in the spring.
“It will basically be renovating our entire football stadium and going to an artificial turf field. It’s pretty much a revamp of the total facilities,” Bowlds said. “It will be nice for us. It’s not just for football. We’re going to be able to play soccer now on the turf. It’s pretty much just an entire overall of our football, soccer and track facility.”
