The Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference underwent significant structural changes beginning this spring, including divisional realignment and the reintroduction of a conference championship game.

Now nearly a full season into the reimagined UCBAC, most area coaches believe it’s made the conference stronger and better equipped to face the rest of Maryland in the playoffs.

But some still have questions.

“I think there’s some things that need to be tweaked, but I feel like it was a positive change,” Bel Air boys lacrosse coach Doug Testerman said.

The conference’s structural changes were three-fold. What previously was two divisions, an “upper” and “lower” circuit that teams could fluctuate between year to year and sport to sport based on performance to ensure competitive balance, became three fixed divisions of five teams each — the five Cecil County schools on their own and the 10 Harford County schools split between the Tydings and Hatem divisions.

Also, a UCBAC championship game returned after more than a decade without one. And schedules were altered to decrease nonconference matchups for some teams and create a series model for baseball and softball; teams often faced each other on consecutive days.

Some coaches were wary of doing away with the annual realignment model in favor of the fixed format, The Aegis reported in January, worrying how the move could affect competitive balance. But reintroducing a conference title game had universal support. It still does.

“That was something me and all the other ADs agreed was something we were missing,” said Fallston boys lacrosse coach Patrick Mull, also the school’s athletic director. “Yeah, it’s changed our scheduling a little bit. Some people are kinda, ‘whatever’ about it. But I do like the fact that for all our sports, we’re going to have a true UCBAC champion.”

The UCBAC once had a championship game between the winners of the upper and lower divisions. Lopsided results pushed the conference to do away with that model nearly two decades ago.

“It was pointless,” Testerman said. “It kind of always felt like there was just something missing. It’s something to play for.”

This spring’s conference title games, the first in this new iteration, begin Friday. The three division winners and one wild card, the top second-place team, play in a semifinal round. Championship games are Monday.

“I thought this year’s conferences were fair and satisfactory,” Patterson Mill girls lacrosse coach Robert Persing said. “Not really a big change from last year. I do like the TBD last game of the regular season,” referring to an open slot at the end of every team’s schedule reserved for a nonconference matchup coaches can fill if they don’t make the UCBAC tournament.

Still, some coaches feel their teams were left behind.

One area softball coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said smaller teams and smaller schools are an afterthought in this format. They added the conference did not adequately address questions from other coaches when pressed on the issue of competitive balance at the conference’s coaches meeting last winter.

Testerman, who’s school is one of the larger in the county, could see that point of view.

“Some of these teams don’t get a whole lot out of playing us, because they just can’t compete with us, nor do we get much out of playing them,” Testerman said. “And I just feel bad sometimes because these guys are working all day at practice, and then they face a Fallston and get beat 20-1. That’s gotta be crushing to guys who are on the edge of, ‘Do I really love playing lacrosse, or is this something I can leave?’ I feel like that’s going to push some of these guys away.”

In a statement to The Aegis, the UCBAC said the changes were part of a “pilot program” and that it will “continue to asses for areas of improvement.”

“As the landscape of high school athletics has evolved, it became apparent that adjustments were necessary to better meet the needs of our student-athletes and schools,” the statement read. “These changes were made collaboratively and in consultation with athletic directors from both Harford and Cecil County Public Schools, as well as other key athletic stakeholders. The overall response from the public and our athletic communities has been positive, but we have identified some areas of potential adjustments.”

Other concerns center around junior varsity competition, which were among coaches’ initial concerns and still persist. Scheduling conflicts arose for schools with junior varsity programs that were placed in divisions alongside schools without them, or when boys and girls lacrosse teams were both scheduled to play at one school on the same day.

Testerman’s junior varsity squad, for example, only faced five schools and played them each twice. C. Milton Wright and Fallston both had boys and girls varsity and junior varsity lacrosse games scheduled at the same location on the same day. The JV games were moved.

But overall, most coaches are favorable toward the changes and feel they’ve pushed the UCBAC in the right direction. Harford County was one of the last in Maryland that did not crown a county champion. And giving more meaning to those regular season battles could help in the state tournament, when the intensity peaks and every game could be a team’s last.

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