As mentioned in my previous blog, League Shuffling Part 1, area high school conferences have announced some serious remodeling in recent months. The Inter-Valley Conference is adding five teams (for a total of 14 teams) and going to a two-division set-up for football, and possibly other sports. The Principals’ Athletic Conference (PAC-7) has responded to losing three members by replacing them with four new schools.
That brings us to the current home of Dover and New Philadelphia: the East Central Ohio League. The E.C.O.L., created in 1987, fluctuated between 4 and 8 teams until 2010, when it expanded to 10 teams broken into a big school (Scarlet) and small school (Gray) division. That arrangement, though, appears to be on thin ice due to Claymont leaving the small school division to join the I.V.C.
The league’s initial response was to move Cambridge into the small school division and invite Vincent Warren into the big school division. When I initially saw that news, my first thought was ‘who, what, and where is Vincent Warren?”. A quick check on the Mapquest website showed that it was west of Marietta and 97 miles from Dover High School. 97 miles! Something tells me Dover and New Philadelphia coaches were not too eager to add this new member to the league family. But the choice of Vincent Warren seemed to show how desparate the E.C.O.L. is to find a replacement for the big school division.
Much to the joy of Tuscarawas County sports fans, and the chagrin of the auto industry, Vincent Warren turned down the E.C.O.L.’s invitation in mid-July. So here is the current line-up for the E.C.O.L., which includes the OHSAA 2015-17 enrollment figures (based on males grades 9-11 from last year) as well as the travel times for Dover and New Philadelphia:
With nine schools, it would likely be very difficult to continue a two-division set-up. Four teams in a division works for the National Football League, but would give high school athletic directors nightmares with all of the scheduling holes to fill. And with the significant difference in enrollments between the bigger and smaller schools, increasing crossover games between the divisions or even merging all schools into one division is not a very appealing solution. This is especially true when considering the match-ups in football, which produces most of the revenues for high school athletic departments. Just this past season, Coshocton brought a 7-0 record to Dover to face the 5-2 Tornadoes and left with a 42-0 loss. It is a tough jump for the smaller schools to match up with quality football programs that are so much bigger in size.
So, besides standing pat, what might the E.C.O.L. do? An obvious solution is to try and find another team to join the big-school division. The problem with that is that there are few schools that size for E.C.O.L. to draw from. Steubenville is a possible candidate. In 2010, the E.C.O.L. announced Steubenville was joining the league, but the Big Red soon turned the invitation down. If they had a change of heart , that would fill the gap, but would also keep Dover and Phila fans wearing their tire treads down:
As you can see, the average big school trip for Dover and Phila fans would be about 70 miles. A trip to Cleveland from Dover H.S. is 75 miles. Not ideal for sports fans, and pure misery for athletes staring out the windows of those yellow school busses. (those time would probably bump up at least 10 minutes for a school bus).
Steubenville also doesn’t fit the big-school enrollment figures, but the long-time success of their football program shows that they play much bigger than their enrollment.
Another oft-discussed candidate is West Holmes, which is currently a part of the Ohio Cardinal Conference. In 2008, the Knights were in discussions to join the E.C.O.L., but decided to stay in the O.C.C. Here is how their enrollment and travel times look in the E.C.O.L.:
It makes for a shorter trip for the Tornadoes and Quakers. Unfortunately, the travel times to West Holmes for Marietta (118 minutes) and Zanesville (78 minutes) would be a very hard sell.
Another possibility that was explored in 2013 is a merger with the Muskingum Valley League. The M.V.L. has nine teams of varying sizes, so merging with the E.C.O.L. would be a monumental task. And most of the M.V.L. is beyond Zanesville, so travel time would once again be a red flag.
Obviously, the options for the E.C.O.L. are limited, primarily due the smaller, rural populations in its area. And thus, the future of the league appears to be very murky. So where does that leave Dover and New Philadelphia? I would suggest that they consider a variation of the famous Horace Greeley quote: “Go North, young Man”. There are so many more schools that direction of comparable size as possibilities.
Looking into joining the Ohio Cardinal Conference might be something to explore. Here is how the enrollments and travel looks if the O.C.C. was broken geographically into East and West divisions:
*note that Mount Vernon was just invited to join the league to replace Orrville this spring.
The East Division for Dover and New Philadelphia would be very appealing in terms of travel and time. Crossover games with the West division, though, would be a onslaught of long road trips to go along with match-ups with some big schools. Overall, I think the Tornado and Quaker decision makers would strongly consider this option if it became available. I don’t think, however, that members of the O.C.C. would want to stretch their map so far east.
What about joining the Federal League? Those Stark County schools are pretty close. And very, very big. I am sure Quaker fans haven’t forgotten their 1990’s struggles when they were the small school in the Federal League meat grinder.
So what else is out there? I think there is one option out there that would be a great fit:
The Northeastern Buckeye Conference.
Stay tuned that discussion in Part 3.
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