Bishop Miege Activities Director Mike Hubka, who is the EKL’s secretary this year, said in order for there to be membership change, there must be a unanimous vote.

St. James has already accepted its offer, while Mill Valley will need approval from District 232’s Board of Education first.

“Mr. (Andy) Tylicki, our president, were on the phone with Mike Hubka this afternoon and we accepted it,” SJA Activities Director Mark Huppe said. “We’re thrilled about it.”

For the Thunder, it’s been a four-year process. Huppe said Tylicki was in talks with the EKL when the school first opened in 2005, but has been an independent ever since.

MVHS has been a member of the Kaw Valley League since 2000 when it first opened its doors.

The first year of full admittance will begin with the 2016-17 season, which will be when a new football rotation begins.

“We have a lot of planning to do to go from an eight-team league to a 10-team league,” Hubka said.

The league will have about a year and a half to have a plan in place. Hubka said with a 10-team league and a nine-game football schedule it’s impossible for all teams to play each other. In basketball, for example, each team will play each other once.

Huppe said St. James and Mill Valley presented their argument for the final time in September.

“(The EKL) asks us to fill out a bunch of paper work and make a formal presentation,” Huppe said.

Mill Valley and St. James will join Bishop Miege, Blue Valley, Blue Valley North, Blue Valley Northwest, Blue Valley Southwest, Blue Valley West, Gardner-Edgerton, St. Thomas Aquinas to make it a 10-team league.

Mill Valley’s departure from the Kaw Valley League, will leave the KVL with seven teams: Basehor-Linwood, Bishop Ward, Bonner Springs, Lansing, Piper, Tonganoxie and Turner.

The Jaguars, in football, played an “independent” schedule this year as the only KVL teams they played were other Class 5A schools, which were Lansing and district games against Bonner Springs and Turner.

Check back with shawneedispatch.com as the story develops.