Twin Valley, Conrad Weiser will be on the move for 2026, 2027 seasons
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
That dangerous Bermuda Triangle of football powerhouses in Section 4 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League is being broken up.
Twin Valley, on the verge of its first Section 4 championship, will return to Section 3 for the 2026 and 2027 seasons, according to graphics posted on the league website earlier today.
Conrad Weiser will return to Section 4 from Section 3; the Scouts played in Section 4 for their first two seasons in the league before enrollment-based realignment. They won the Section 3 title last year.
Those are the only changes for the next two seasons. In 2023, when the last realignment was announced, eight of the league’s 37 football teams switched sections.
There had been talk over the past year about returning to a four-section format but that obviously did not gain much traction.
Some of the larger schools, in Sections 1, 2, and 3, were pushing for a switch to four sections to ease scheduling difficulties. There are seven teams in each of the three largest sections, which means those schools need to schedule four non-league games.
Scheduling those in the early weeks of the season is not difficult but each of those schools have mid- or late-season league bye, in Weeks 4 thru 10. Opponents are difficult to find later in the season because many schools are locked into league schedules.
There are eight schools each in Section 4 and Section 5; those teams play seven league games and three non-league games. Their non-league games come during the first three weeks of the season.
Since the expansion of the league to 37 teams for the 2022 season Section 4 has been considered the most competitive. Initially, Cocalico was paired with Lampeter-Strasburg and Wyomissing, each with recent District 3 championships on their respective resumes.
Lancaster-Lebanon League section alignment for 2026-27
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Cedar Crest | Conestoga Valley | Cocalico | Conrad Weiser | Ann.-Cleona |
| Hempfield | Elizabethtown | Fleetwood | Daniel Boone | Berks Catholic |
| Manheim Twp. | Ephrata | Garden Spot | Donegal | Columbia |
| McCaskey | Exeter | Man. Central | Elco | Hamburg |
| Penn Manor | Gov. Mifflin | Solanco | Lamp.-Strasburg | Kutztown |
| Reading | Lebanon | Twin Valley | N. Lebanon | Lanc. Catholic |
| Wilson | Muhlenberg | Warwick | Octorara | Peque Valley |
| Wyomissing | Sch. Valley |
Cocalico moved to Section 3 for the 2024 season but life didn’t get any easier in Section 4 with the addition of Twin Valley, which was ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 4A for several weeks last season and has spent the second half of this season in the Top 10, along with the Pioneers and Spartans.
In the league’s last football realignment Manheim Central and Warwick moved from Section 2 to Section 3, with Elizabethtown and Ephrata moving up from Section 3 to take their places.
Daniel Boone moved from Section 3 to Section 4, swapping spots with Cocalico. Northern Lebanon moved from Section 5 to Section 4, swapping places with Berks Catholic.
The Saints are profiting from that move; they’re currently tied for first place in Section 5 and can earn their first L-L championship by beating Annville-Cleona on Friday.
The Lancaster-Lebanon League has traditionally aligned its sections by enrollment. The largest schools are in Section 1; the smallest in Section 5.
The PIAA reclassifies all schools, based on enrollment, every two years.
