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Like many other schools in northern Ohio this year, we've seen a number of area schools either leave to join other conferences or team with other schools to form new leagues.
Such is the case with Genoa, Woodmore, Lake and Eastwood, which begin football in a new league this Friday.
With the Suburban Lakes League (SLL) having recently dissolved as a conference after 40 seasons of athletic competition (1972-2011), Genoa, Woodmore, Lake and Eastwood joined with former SLL foes Otsego and Elmwood as well as Rossford and Fostoria to create the newly-formed Northern Buckeye Conference (NBC).
For the former SLL schools in the NBC, of which there are six, there are just three changes they’ll experience: (1) seeing their new conference increase in size from seven to eight teams; (2) taking on the additions of Rossford and Fostoria; and (3) seeing Gibsonburg leave. (Gibsonburg recently joined the Toledo Area Athletic Conference.) Essentially, Rossford and Fostoria will serve as “replacements” for Gibsonburg and Lakota. (Lakota left the SLL following the 2008-09 school year for the Midland Athletic League.)
For Rossford and Fostoria, who have seen a decrease in enrollment in recent years, it will be a welcomed move to a conference that features smaller schools than the ones they were accustomed to facing.
“They both needed to get away from the conferences they were in – they needed to move,” said NBC commissioner Larry Jones. “They both fit in with the geographies (of the NBC). Their numbers indicate that they should be successful.”
Rossford migrated over from the Northern Lakes League (NLL) where the Bulldogs faced the likes of bigger schools such as Northview, Perrysburg and Bowling Green week in and week out. (Oddly enough, it is a reunion of sorts for Rossford and four the schools in the NBC. Back in the 1960s and '70s, Rossford, Eastwood, Lake, Genoa and Elmwood were all members of the NLL.)
The Redmen, meanwhile, left the Northern Ohio League (NOL) after 10 seasons of competition against the likes of mid-size schools such as Bellevue and Tiffin Columbian. Fostoria brings with them a rich history in football, having won the state championship in Division II in 1991 and '96. (Because of the significant decrease in population the city of Fostoria has seen in recent years, its football program has now dropped down to Division IV.)
The addition of both schools to the conference should make for better competition for the league as a whole as well as help add some depth to the NBC. In addition to that, having eight teams in the conference will allow the former SLL schools to only have to schedule three non-conference football games each year as opposed to four, which they had been forced to do in recent years.
Tom Tucker, who served as athletic director at Lakota High School for 33 years and is now in his second season at Woodmore in the same position, had this to say about the NBC and the importance of having eight teams in the league.
“It's great that we have eight teams. Seven was not a good working number, especially for football. People had to travel all over for the extra non-conference game (in football). Teams in the SLL had to sometimes travel over 100 miles to play the extra (non-conference) game.
“Everybody is happy to have eight teams; eight is the perfect number to have for a league.”
In any conference, the hope is that the schools will be located within close proximity of one another and that they will be of similar size, which makes for good competition.
Travel will not be an issue, as the greatest distance between any of the two schools is 36 miles (Fostoria to Rossford).
Except for Woodmore and Elmwood, the two smallest schools in the conference, respectively, the other schools are very comparable in size to one another, as Genoa, Eastwood, Lake, Otsego, Rossford and Fostoria are all in Division IV in football. (Woodmore and Elmwood are Division V football programs.)
As always, it is the smaller programs that consistently face uphill battles. Tucker had this to say about the challenges that Woodmore must deal with.
“You're still gonna get kids out – (but) you're not gonna have the (high) numbers out there. It makes it hard to have a freshman, JV and varsity team (in some sports).”
Jones notes that, for there to be a high level of competition among the schools, the respective programs must churn out high numbers of athletes. It's quantity that is vital in helping to ensure that the NBC consistently fields good teams in a number of sports.
“Its makes a difference if you have the numbers,” he said. “Talent will rotate, but it's about the numbers.”
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