For Lucas, the move to the Northern 10 Athletic Conference was a no-brainer.

The Cubs will join the N10 for the 2026-27 school year, much to athletic director Taylor Iceman’s delight. His tenure as AD has been a logistical nightmare since taking the job in the summer of 2019. 

“We’ve been looking for anything and everything for the past handful of years,” Iceman said. “We’ve had conversations with some schools and it finally all came together.”

Lucas has been a member of the Mid-Buckeye Conference since 2013, but the conference never had enough football-playing members to sponsor a championship. That meant Lucas has operated as a de facto independent in football since the North Central Conference disbanded.

Finding opponents had become increasingly difficult, especially since most like-sized schools in the area already have stable conference homes. That meant Iceman scheduled just about anyone willing to play.

The Division VII Cubs played Division II Columbus St. Charles in 2019, Division II Lakewood in 2021, Division III Columbus Linden McKinley in 2022 and Division IV Warrensville Heights in 2023 and 2024.

The 2024 season included games against teams from Pennsylvania and Michigan.

“We’re this close to the (2025) season and we still don’t have a Week 9 opponent,” Iceman said. “What do you do? You have to decide if you want to play a nine-game schedule or find anyone you can find who has an opening.”

Life as an independent also has meant plenty of traveling. Iceman has been able to balance the schedule (five home games, five road games), but road trips were getting longer.

The Cubs played games at Smethport (Pa.), Smithville, Warrensville Heights, Tiffin Calvert and Kansas Lakota last fall. The trip to Smethport and back was more than 500 miles.

“We’ve been all over,” Iceman said. “It has been a challenge.”

The N10 also extended invitations to Willard, Tiffin Calvert, Hopewell-Loudon, Old Fort and New Riegel of the Sandusky Bay Conference.

The conference announced last week that the eight current members voted to accept all six new members beginning in the fall of 2026, bringing N10 membership to 14. Two of those schools, Old Fort and New Riegel, don’t field football teams.

“What we’re looking at is an eight-game (conference) schedule for football,” Iceman said. “We’ll schedule those first two weeks, hopefully against some local teams, and then the conference schedule is set.”

While building a football schedule will no longer be a headache for Iceman, there will almost certainly be other logistical challenges.

Brief jaunts to Mansfield Christian, St. Peter’s and Crestline for Mid-Buckeye Conference games will be replaced by hour-plus expeditions to Old Fort, New Riegel and Hopewell-Loudon, located in Bascom.

Nothing has been finalized, but Iceman said there is talk among N10 officials and administrators of splitting the 14 N10 members into two seven-team divisions in all sports except football.

An eastern division would likely include Lucas, Colonel Crawford, Buckeye Central, Bucyrus, Wynford, Willard and Seneca East.

“The talk is you would play everyone in your division twice and there would be some cross-over games,” Iceman said. “I think what it will come out to is you’ll have six non-league games in basketball to schedule, which isn’t bad. We can use those games to schedule the local teams we’ve played forever.

“We have short drives in the MBC, but we are one of only five schools. That means we have eight conference games and we have to go out and find 14 non-conference games in basketball.”

While no conference affiliation checks every box, the N10 will offer Lucas long-term stability.

“No conference is perfect, but we feel like this is the best option for Lucas,” Iceman said. “We’re excited about it.”