Mount Vernon-Lisbon
SPORTS | 8 Lions softball win streak increases to eight
MVLSUN.COM
THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2025 • $1.50
Public meeting held on possible conference change for Lisbon
Antiques abound
Nathan Countryman Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun
nathan.countryman@mvlsun.com
Members of the public weighed in on Lisbon’s choice to look at potentially changing conferences from the Tri-Rivers Conference to the River Valley Conference at a meeting Monday, June 30. Junior high activities director Brandon Horman outlined the reasons the district was looking for the change of conference, particularly for better opportunities for junior high and junior varsity players in Lisbon. Lisbon, being one of the larger 1A schools in the Tri-Rivers Conference, has more students out for sports than their competitors. “When you have 20 kids out for a sport, and you’re facing schools with a combined sixth/ seventh grade team to even field a team, you’re not giving your student athletes the opportunity to get playing time,” Horman said. Horman noted that Lisbon has built a great reputation over the past decade of winning and being competitive in a lot of sports, and would like to see that continue. Stepping to a conference with more 2A competitors will push Lisbon to do that. Attendees of the meeting, including previous and current coaches for Lisbon, however, are worried that jumping conferences at this point could hurt programs instead of help them. Former softball coach Bob Bunting said some of the issue is that schedules are being started too late for lining up some games. Others noted they have heard of opportunities for games that were asked to be scheduled but not followed through on in the past year. Jumping from a Class 1A conference like the Tri-Rivers Conference to the River Valley Conference could prove to be a challenge for Lisbon at this point. Attendees pointed out that in the River Valley Conference, Lisbon would be one of the smallest schools facing against larger Class 2A and even Class 3A competitors. “Kids love playing for Lisbon because they love to win,” Bunting said. “We’ve had the most wins we’ve had over the past 10 years in a number of sports, and our kids can play competitively when they need to.” Superintendent Autumn Pino said one of the challenges the district was looking to address as well with this conference change was giving competition to top-tier athletes so
Nathan Countryman Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun
Ann’s Antiques and her adjacent parking lot, Back Porch Pickers nathan.countryman@mvlsun.com and Artisans and the parking lots at the Elliott Athletic Complex. First Street may not have been Many food vendors were down closed this year for parking, but at Elliott Athletic Complex, while it was still hopping as the Nitty antiques realtors were set up at Gritty Antiques Festival popped Polly Ann’s Antiques parking lot into town. and other locations uptown. This year, shoppers had Several uptown restaurants four different locations to find were also open in the uptown for antiques – Vintage 1891, Polly the festival day.
CONFERENCES | 2
INSIDE Mount Vernon-Lisbon
Opinions - 4 & 5 | Records - 6 & 7 | Sports 8-10 |
Photos by Nathan Countryman | Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun
Above left: A shopper looks over some of the plants in uptown Mount Vernon near Polly Ann’s Antiques. Above: Aside from Polly Ann’s Antiques storefront, multiple vendors also set up shop in the adjacent parking lot near the uptown business.
Left top: Vendors sold at Elliott Athletic Complex. Above: Live music was also provided at Elliott Athletic Complex. Left bottom: More than 90 different vendors were available to have their wares perused at Back Porch Pickers and Artisans shop in Mount Vernon.
11 | Public Notices - 12 & 13