MARLIN - It's now official.

The former Anthracite Football League has been moved under the umbrella of the Schuylkill Interscholastic Athletic Association.During a press conference Thursday morning at the Schuylkill Intermediate Unit, Stephen Toth of Tamaqua High School, the SIAL's principals representative, made the unveiling."The Schuylkill League (SIAL) would like to announce that the Anthracite Football League will be incorporated into the Schuylkill League," Toth said addressing the media and the league's 12 football teams."This is a long time coming. Communication between our (athletic directors) was an important step to make this come to fruition. This is certainly a very good step in the right direction as a whole for our league."The key to bringing the AFL under the new banner, which will be directed by the SIAL athletic directors along with input and representation from the Schuylkill County Football Coaches Association, came about when Pottsville High School left the Berks League and was recruited to join the football league. Pottsville is already a full-time member in other sports, and capping it off with the football league will allow for a two divisional setup.The league will be split into big school and small school. Pottsville, Blue Mountain, Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Tamaqua and North Schuylkill will make up Division I. Division II comprises Marian, Panther Valley, Mahanoy Area, Shenandoah Valley, Schuylkill Haven and Minersville. Unlike most other sports in the SIAL, there will be no championship game between divisional winners.Some schools will continue to play each other in crossover games without counting in the league standings, and "Rivalry Week" stays in tact on the 10th playing date. That means Tamaqua-Marian, Shenandoah Valley-Mahanoy Area and Blue Mountain-Schuylkill Haven will maintain their long standing traditions. Shenandoah Valley and Mahanoy Area have been battling on the gridiron since 1899, the longest such game in Schuylkill County and one of the longest in Pennsylvania.Toth explained that the door is left open for additional expansion. Mount Carmel and Shamokin were one-time members of the SIAL, while football was independent. However the inability to fill out football schedules drove both of those schools to look for an "all-league" setup and they found it in the Heartland Conference. Now that football has been added, that could very well pave the way for both of those Northumberland County schools to revisit the SIAL.Four football playing schools that are fulltime members of the Schuylkill League are conspicuously absent from the SFL - Pine Grove, Williams Valley, Tri-Valley and Nativity. Those teams are football-only members in the Twin Valley and All-American conferences respectively.Marian's Stan Dakosty, who is the dean of football coaches in the region and the school's AD, understands the reasons for some schools opting not to play football in the SFL."Those people have studied really hard what's good for them and what's not good. I don't think anyone can look at that and say they belong playing here. Our league is a good league, and I'm sure their league is good, too."You come into this league you gotta be ready to play week-in and week-out. I'm talking about our league. Maybe three years from now they may want to come in and be a part of this. But I'm not going to pass judgement on what teams want to do or have to do."With or without the addition teams, Dakosty is still very happy with the league."I'm a traditionalist and I was looking the other day at a picture when the coaches created the (AFL)," said Dakosty who had dreams of such a league back in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s before the formation of the AFL came about in 2002."All we've done is rebranded it. It is going to be same hard-nosed, tough Coal Region Football., which made the Anthracite League what it was. The name has changed, but for me as a football coach it still is the Anthracite Football League caliber."Fans have to realize, the players have to realize we may have lost the (AFL) title, we have not lost the rivalries and competition, the pride and symbol of playing hardnosed football - Anthracite football."