The Wolverine Conference Board of Governors on Thursday voted to extend an invitation to Edwardsburg to join the league beginning in 2012-13.

The announcement, via a news release, ends the expansion process for the league, which began in December.

Gull Lake, which was the ninth member of the conference that formed in 1952-53, was released from the league in January. The Blue Devils will only compete in football during the 2011-12 season as they agreed to stay to help ease the issues of scheduling at such a late date.

Gull Lake joined the Big 16 Conference earlier this year and will begin play in all other sports next fall.

The process of expansion has been long and sometimes frustrating for all involved. Invitations were extended to not only Edwardsburg, but Berrien Springs, Coloma and Buchanan from the Lakeland Conference, and Wolverine officials made site visits to those institutions in March.

The sticking point of the entire process seemed to be how many schools would be invited to join the league.

But on Thursday, the board of governors decided on adding just one at this time and remaining a 10-team league.

“Pending the Edwardsburg Board of Education approval, the Eddies will begin league competition in 2012-13,” the press release said. “The board of governors is very excited to add Edwardsburg to the league and looks forward to beginning the relationship with them. We know that they have a quality program and will be a nice fit with the existing nine schools. Their philosophy of the role of educational athletics is in line with the conference and they have similar athletic offerings as the current league schools.”

Edwardsburg voted unanimously on Monday night to accept the invitation.

“I feel the move makes sense for Edwardsburg and the other schools in the Lakeland Conference,” Edwardsburg superintendent Sherm Ostrander said. “Some school districts are having declining enrollments, and I believe we were nearing a point as a league where the smaller-sized districts were interested in aligning themselves with districts of similar size.  Given that Edwardsburg was the largest district, it made sense for us to consider a move for the benefit of the other districts.

“We (Edwardsburg) tried to be proactive and at the same time be sensitive to the concerns of our peers in the Lakeland Conference.  This move is not to be looked at as any negative to the Lakeland Conference. We have a lot of history with the Lakeland Conference and value the relationships we had with league members.”

The board of governors looked at a variety of options and after visiting all four schools, which also were appealing to the league, decided to just add Edwardsburg.

“After extensive discussion the board decided that the best course of action at this time would be to remain at 10 schools and to offer Edwardsburg the opportunity to fill the existing opening,” the release said.

The Wolverine Conference will divide into two divisions of five schools with Dowagiac, Paw Paw, Three Rivers and Vicksburg to be joined by the Eddies, pending its board approval. Allegan, South Haven, Otsego, Plainwell and Comstock will make up the other division. No specific names for the two divisions have been decided upon, according to Gary Ellis, Wolverine Conference league secretary.

This is the second expansion for the Wolverine Conference in the last five years. Dowagiac and Paw Paw joined the league in 2006.