BOURBON – The summer months are often a chance to recharge, take inventory, and regroup for the upcoming school year in most athletic departments. The halls around Triton High School certainly have not been quiet as the school is receiving general upgrades within the building. Some of those upgrades, however, involve a whole lot more than paint and a wet sponge.

The Trojan Trench is one of the more glaring corners of the school receiving a facelift, getting new paint and touchups in the hallowed house of champions. But taking a closer look is the omission of several ghosts in Triton’s past. Jimtown, gone. Bremen, bye bye. New Prairie, no longer. John Glenn, to the moon. Their likenesses, as well as the other three teams from the once-proud Northern State Conference have been turned to a simple gray as the NSC is now a fading memory.

The Northern State Conference disbanded at the end of the 2014-15 athletic calendar after Bremen checked out of the state softball and baseball tournaments and Triton from the state baseball tournament. The conference physically closed when Jimtown boys golfer Broc Maurer closed out his season at the Warsaw golf regional June 11.

Thus ushered Bremen, Jimtown, John Glenn and New Prairie to pack its bags for the ultra-competitive and Big 10-like super-conference that is the Northern Indiana Conference. The football should be outstanding with Jimtown and New Prairie taking its state pedigrees against the likes of St. Joseph’s, Mishawaka and Penn.

But what’s to become of Triton, LaVille, Knox and Culver; the NSC leftover little guys? Hello, Hoosier North Athletic Conference!

The HNAC will welcome the four schools plus area neighbors Caston and North Judson along with Pioneer, West Central and Winamac. Losing the NSC big schools doesn’t mean Triton is getting a break. Pioneer won four straight boys basketball sectionals from 2010-13 and faced Winamac in the football regional final on its way to Class 1-A state championship appearance. Winamac is the big get in the conference, a program that won seven sectional titles last season, including top flight cross country, football, basketball and softball programs.

“There has been lots of preparation that has taken place over the past two years,” said Triton athletic director Mason McIntyre. “The HNAC athletic directors have met once a month for the past two years.  The first 6-8 months were spent trying to work out all of the details of the conference: conference by-laws, scheduling models.

“Then the past year we have spent working on scheduling. Travel was our biggest concern as a few of these schools are a good distance away. However, we will drop our contests with New Prairie and Jimtown, which were two of our further trips in the NSC and replace them with these new schools.”

McIntyre noted Triton will miss the conference showdowns with rivals like Bremen and Jimtown, but are anticipating the new programs on the schedule. And Triton will afford non-conference matchups with schools like Bremen in most sports as well as John Glenn in several sports.

“The majority of the coaches were in favor of staying with the NSC, but once it became obvious that the NSC was going to dissolve, I think that we all felt this was the right fit for us given the circumstances,” McIntyre said. “The coaches have all worked with me on scheduling preferences and have begun preparing for their time in the HNAC. I think the kids are excited about the change. Kids are pretty resilient and, in fact, I think they usually accept change better than adults. I think they are excited about seeing some new schools and meeting some new people.”