Oregon board votes leave City League for new league
The Oregon School Board voted unanimously to pass a resolution Wednesday to leave the Toledo City Athletic League and join a new league starting the 2011-12 school year.

If the league is successful in finalizing its formation, the league will include Clay, Whitmer, Fremont Ross, Findlay, Lima Senior, Central Catholic, St. John’s Jesuit, St. Francis DeSales, St. Ursula Academy, and Notre Dame Academy. The new league remains unnamed.

Of the 10 schools, eight will compete in boys athletics, and eight will compete in girls athletics. Clay is the smallest public school among the group.

Athletic Director Mike Donnelly cited a concern over future funding of athletics by Toledo Public Schools as one reason seven schools are leaving the CL. Clay, Whitmer, St. John’s, St. Francis, Central, Notre Dame, and St. Ursula were already competing in the CL, and in 2011-12, Findlay and Fremont Ross were originally planning to join them.

Donnelly told the school board that isn’t a decision that was just made and recommended to them. Meetings had been ongoing for the past year, and he said a lot of thought and research went into the decision.

Suburban Lakes League Commissioner Jim Yeager, who has been a consultant to the group, said all of the schools are planning to meet again Tuesday to continue the process.

All-MAC
The 2010 Mid-American Conference Tournament opened on Tuesday night with a conference-wide meal, fireworks and an award ceremony handing out hardware to the MAC’s elite. On that list of players honored in the evening were five Bowling Green Falcons, three named to the All-MAC second team and two to the First Team All-MAC.

Derek Spencer (Clay) earned All-MAC honors for the third consecutive season, having been named to second team honors. Last year Spencer was also named to the All-MAC Second Team after being named to the conference’s first team honors his sophomore season.

In 2010, Spencer finished his season batting .306 overall and .336 in conference play. Since April 16, he raised his batting average 35 points and hit seven of his 12 home runs on the season, including a walk-off home run that clinched the Falcons’ third consecutive MAC East title.

Two Falcons were elected to the All-MAC first team this year. After missing 2009 due to an injury, senior Kevin Leady (Eastwood) turned 2010 into a career year on the mound finishing the season with an 8-2 record and a 4.84 earned run average. Against Eastern Michigan on April 4, he struck out a career-high ten batters in 7.1 innings of work in a Falcon win.

The next week, Leady pitched seven strong inning and allowed only two runs while striking out seven against Ball State in their lone win that weekend which also signaled the turnaround of BGSU baseball. Leady won four straight starts from April 4 to April 25 during that run and allowed a total of 11 runs in nearly 30 innings of work.

University of Toledo coach Cory Mee, who once played summer college baseball for the Bowling Green Breeze, was honored as the MAC Coach of the Year. The Breeze, which played in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, was owned at the time by Pemberville resident Cliff Duncan.

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