Fuqua School’s varsity football team is part of a conference once more, officially joining the Battlefield Conference with five other teams, Falcons Head Coach Ben Manis announced Tuesday.

The Falcons share the conference with Massanutten Military Academy, Richmond Christian School, Quantico School, Saint Michael the Archangel High School and Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Catholic School.

Fuqua’s football team has not competed in a conference since 2014 when it was part of the Virginia Commonwealth Conference, now known as the Virginia Colonial Conference.

Manis was pleased with his team’s new conference.

“It’s really great news because it’s schools that are very much like-minded and have the same focus that we do,” he said. “It’s schools that are our same size.”

The conference needed to receive clearance from the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA), of which Fuqua is a part, and Manis announced that clearance came through Tuesday.

He noted that being part of this conference is “really big for us because there is no (VISAA) Division III football conference. It really helps with protecting (the) schedule, and it gives our kids a conference championship to play for.”

Massanutten Military was not able to arrange a game this coming season with the Falcons due to a prior arrangement with another team, but the expectation is that starting in 2020, five of Fuqua’s regular season games will be against the other conference teams. The Falcons will face the other four teams this year.

“It kind of locks in some guys that you’ll see from year to year, and you’ll kind of build in some rivalries, which is nice to do,” Manis said.

The conference championship will be determined by play in the regular season games.

The new conference arrangement will not change Fuqua’s path to the VISAA Division III state title.