Rolla schools are a victim of success, geography and bad roads.
Those are the three biggest reasons why Rolla High School is starting the first of two years as an independent school, not in a conference for athletic and academic competitions, school officials said.
Rolla had been a member of the Ozark Conference for more than 20 years, but the other 10 members of that conference accepted invitations to join other conferences.
That left Rolla with a difficult choice: either join the Central Ozark Conference and agree to play teams including Neosho, Webb City and Joplin, all 180 miles away, or play as an independent school.
“Looking at the pros and cons, we had to take a step back, to make sure that our students weren’t being hurt academically by traveling, regularly, three hours to the south to compete,” said Corey Ray, principal of Rolla High School.
Being an independent school may require fewer hours on a bus and bring lower travel costs. But it also means a loss of conference tournaments and honors.
“Students won’t get all conference recognition for academics or athletics, and that is unfortunate,” Ray said.
Rolla High School has an enrollment of 1,067 this school year. To find other schools of that size requires traveling more than an hour to the north, west or east. And those schools are now in conferences that are centered even farther away.
“When you’re 100 miles from Springfield or St. Louis, and 60 miles away from Jefferson City, it makes it difficult to be in a conference of similar-sized schools,” said Mark Caballero, Rolla High School’s director of athletics.
“We have a university, a hospital and industry that is hiring. The population and enrollment are growing, and that’s rare for a rural school,” he said.
Rolla asked last fall to be a part of the Four Rivers Conference, which would have put all opponents within 75 miles. The conference didn't accept the school because all of its schools are smaller than Rolla, some with less than half its enrollment.
Rolla is seeking to join the Central Missouri Activities Conference, made up primarily of schools in Jefferson City and Columbia. But it may be a hard sell to get those teams to agree to come down to Rolla for games.
“If you’re asking to be a member of another conference, those schools are asking if it’s an easy drive or a difficult drive. Going up Highway 63, not everyone likes that,” Caballero said.
The more than 50 miles of Highway 63 between Rolla and Jefferson City is a two-lane road with many twists and turns and has been part of the deadliest road in Missouri.
For this year, and next year, Rolla will be an independent school, meaning it will have a harder time finding teams to play. It will not affect state playoffs, as the Missouri State High School Activities Association organizes those by geography, not conference record or affiliation.
Rolla’s first home football game was on Saturday against Kelly High School, a school with an enrollment of 230. Rolla won 48-0.
“We are going to make the case to join a conference that makes sense for our students academically and athletically and is sustainable for the long run, and we hope to do that for the 2026-2027 school year,” Caballero said. “If that doesn’t happen, we will have to look at being independent a little while longer.”
