Helias High School won't be joining the AAA this fall after all.
In an announcement Friday afternoon, Helias said it has decided not to become a member of the Archdiocesan Athletic Association (AAA), a conference of St. Louis-area schools, starting with the 2018-19 school year.
"We were excited to join this conference back in the fall of 2016, but this spring we realized it would be difficult to continue with membership," Helias president Fr. Stephen Jones said in a release from the school.
The release stated after a thorough review of "academic and faith-based time lost and the financial costs to the school," it was decided to not join the AAA starting in the fall.
"We definitely want to maintain great relationships with all the faith-based schools in the conference, and have asked them to keep us on their schedules for next year," Fr. Jones said.
There are apparently some hard feelings from at least one current conference member. According to its 2018 football schedule, AAA member St. Dominic is scheduled to host Helias on Friday, Oct. 5 in O'Fallon. But in a posting on MoSports.com football message board that went online Friday morning before the announcement from Helias was made public, St. Dominic stated it was open that week and was looking for an opponent. The posting was removed Friday night.
Helias announced in late 2016 it would join the AAA starting with the 2018-19 school year, with an affiliate membership for some sports beginning in 2017-18. Helias has or will compete for conference championships such as cross country, golf, tennis and wrestling this school year as an affiliate member. The Helias boys and girls track and field teams were scheduled to participate today in the AAA Relays in St. Peters before the event was called off, citing weather.
One of the reasons Helias said in 2016 it joined the AAA was the stability of a schedule in all sports and it had done studies regarding potential budgets for travel.
Father Tolton in Columbia announced it was joining the AAA at the same time as Helias.