Louisville High School has had a long history of athletic league stability. LHS was a member of the Tri-County League from 1932-1967, jumped up to the bigger Federal League from 1967-1989, then dropped to its smaller, current home, the Northeastern Buckeye Conference. Unfortunately, Louisville was recently abandoned by its seven other league brethren, who voted to jointly leave the NBC to form a new league minus the increasingly more dominant Leopards Read my blog, An Autopsy on the NBC, for more details on that situation.
Now Louisville officials and administrators are faced with the unfamiliar task of finding a new home for their student-athletes. Unfortunately, the current league housing market has very limited options. Just about every Leopard fan has their own idea of a future home for their school. But when it comes to piecing together high school athletic leagues, one must remember the oft-quoted phrase, “it takes two to tango”. Louisville might have a teenage crush on a certain league scenario, but if that love is not reciprocated, the Leopards are left sitting alone at the prom.
My conversations with various coaches, school officials, and knowledgeable fans in a number of school districts have given me somewhat of a pulse for this situation. So let’s do our own version of a “Parade of Homes” to see what options are available for Louisville and what just might be a good fit. For each league, I included the enrollment of the boys grades 10-12 according to the OHSAA, the enrollment percent comparison to Louisville, and the travel time between high schools according to mapquest.com.
OPTION ONE: DREAM LEAGUE
For high schools, the ideal league size is eight schools (an even amount of schools that fills most of a schedule while still allowing for some non-league games). This group of eight schools is relatively close in enrollment and proximity. For Louisville, it preserves some great NBC relationships while reviving their heated Northwest rivalry. And Lake, Dover, and New Philadelphia are three local communities very similar to Louisville in both values and passion for their high school sports.
Most Leopard fans and administrators would sign up for this in a heartbeat. But there is probably a better chance of Johnny Manziel taking the Browns to Super Bowl 51 than this alignment happening. Lake is currently pretty happy as a Federal League member. Dover and New Philadelphia belong to the East Central Ohio League. Northwest will be joining the Principals’ Athletic Conference (PAC-7) in 2017. And Marlington, Alliance, and South just dumped Louisville.
Five or ten years from now, though, this arrangement might just might have a chance.
Fit for Louisville: A
My predicted chance of happening: 0.5%
OPTION TWO: TWO-TIER FEDERAL LEAGUE
This possibility has maybe been arguably the most popular option discussed by Louisville fans over the last few months. Some discussions have also included Massillon (511 boys) in the upper division and CantonCentral Catholic (147 boys) in the lower division. On paper, it appears to be a nice marriage for all involved.
But the Federal League appears to have no interest in this set-up. They have a strong, stable seven-team arrangement right now, with an ideal eighth spot open for Louisville. When leagues split into big-small division tiers, it tends to lead to instability. The Federal League tried this once in the late 1980s, and it lasted only two years. The Federal League’s likely perspective is that Louisville needs them much more than they need Louisville. So there is no need for them to shake things up to attract the Leopards.
I have also been told that Dover and New Philadelphia have little interest in this arrangement. And considering that the Federal League has never offered their eighth spot to Massillon, I highly doubt they would look to add the Tigers now.
Fit for Louisville: A-
My predicted chance of happening: 2%
OPTION THREE: All-American Conference
The AAC recently met with Louisville school officials to discuss their league. This Youngstown-based conference is currently made up of 20 teams where schools as are divided up into several divisions for each sport based on a combination of size as well as performance in those sports.
In theory, this fluid approach is appealing because helps keep competitive imbalance to a minimum. Opponents of this flexible arrangement feel the lack of a consistent conference ‘family’ keeps schools from creating bonds and healthy rivalries. Debating the pros and cons is likely a moot point, though, when considering the travel time. When looking at the largest eight schools that Louisville would most likely play, the average travel time is 58 minutes. And the drive to the Youngstown area is not consistent, easy highway travel. Considering that Louisville’s current average travel time within the NBC is 25 minutes, I don’t think the league members and set-up are appealing enough to overcome the distance. It would likely be a very tough sell to the Louisville community.
Fit for Louisville: C-
Likelihood of happening: 7.5%
OPTION 4: EIGHT TEAM FEDERAL LEAGUE
When news first came out that the NBC was about to tumble, the most obvious option for Louisville was a return to the Federal League. Even in recent years, many NBC fans, including some LHS supporters, felt that since the Leopards had become such a big fish in the small NBC pond, the time had come for them to move to a big fish bowl of Stark County, where they would likely be embraced with open arms.
Most Federal League members would surely LOVE to have Louisville back in the family. Adding LHS would put the league membership up to that ideal target number of eight. Additionally, Louisville is a local team whose fan base travels well, which means more money for Federal League schools. And with Louisville being by far the smallest school, the Fed big boys would have to like their chances of getting their share of wins vs. the Leopards.
Louisville would also benefit from those short trips and big money gates. And with the Leopards being Division I in most sports other than football, playing a league full of D-I schools should provide better preparation for the post-season. Sounds like an ideal reunion.
Enrollment numbers, however, likely forecast another story:
Louisville’s student population pales in comparison to the rest of the league. The question is whether playing the constant diet of bigger schools would elevate LHS sports’ programs, or eventually overwhelm them? I feel the answer is both. LHS has had plenty of non-league match-ups with Federal League schools through the years. For the most part, the Leopards have held their own, becoming more battle-tested as a result. But there is a big difference between playing a few non-league games versus playing a full Federal League schedule.
In those seasons with peak-performing squads, LHS could compete night in and night out. This year, Louisville probably had their best boys’ basketball team in 15 years, and went 5-1 vs. the Federal League (they didn’t play league co-champ Jackson). But on those non-elite years of talent, the grind of playing a full Federal slate would likely catch up to the Leopards. A look back to their last Federal League go-around supports this.
Old-school fans might hearken back to the Federal football glory of the 1970s, when Louisville and Hoover did their own version of Ohio State and Michigan’s ‘Big 2’. From 1970-1981, either the Leopards and Vikings were the champions each year, winning six titles each (Perry twice shared a title in that span).
But as Louisville’s enrollment gradually separated from the big school totals, success became fleeting. In the 1980s, Louisville’s boys’ teams won only 5 Federal League championships: two in tennis (1983 and 1985), and one in baseball (1988), football (1981), and basketball (1982). In comparison, Louisville boys won 22 NBC titles from 2000-09 and 20 NBC titles from 2010-15.
Lack of titles was only the tip of the iceberg. Louisville struggled to stay competitive in most sports. After the titles of the 1981-82 school year, football went in 28-52 and basketball went a brutal 23-124 before departing for the NBC. Participation numbers decreased (football went as low as 37 players in 1987) and some top Louisville athletes went to St. Thomas Aquinas.
27 years later, Louisville athletics has vastly improved across the board, due to both the hard work of Leopard athletes and coaches, as well ability to build a momentum of success vs. NBC schools. But in that time, the Federal League has evolved from a solid big school league to a state power conference. To compete at that elite level, many Federal League athletes now participate in only one sport. Those big school enrollments provide enough talented athletes to fill the large number of team rosters.
For decades, much of Louisville’s success has been large in part due to the performances of multi-sport athletes. And it’s great opportunity that many Louisville students can reasonably play more than one sport. I feel a jump to the Federal League would greatly diminish this, even causing different sports to ‘cannibalize’ each other in a fight for athletes.
In my discussions with various people knowledgeable about Louisville sports, almost all think a move to the Federal League would have terrible long-term implications. Losing breeds fewer participants, which breeds more losing, which breeds a school and community mentality of losing. Any LHS graduate from the 1980s can recall the ‘Loserville’ stigma of those difficult days.
Fit for Louisville: C-
Likelihood of happening: 15%
INDEPENDENT STATUS:
One option that will always be on the table for Louisville is to not be a member of any league. Unless you are Notre Dame, this is usually a very difficult road to travel. Filling schedules is extremely difficult. Northwest has struggled mightily since leaving the NBC in 2011, often being forced to play bigger schools and/or very talented parochial schools. And many opponents are from far-off locations, which either means long bus trips from away games, or small visitor gates for home games.
The positive spin is that being able to choose your opponents, often from a very small list at times, might be a better option than playing a full slate of big Federal League schools, or traveling to the far-off lands of the All-American Conference. For football, you could possibly schedule 6 or 7 home games each year, which could be a financial boon for the LHS athletic budget. And since the Federal League has an odd number of schools, that makes it an easier possibility to schedule some of those teams during the league portion of the season.
Fit for Louisville: D
Likelihood of happening: 5% (I think LHS officials would only truly consider this if there was an extremely strong league possibility on the horizon that might require a year or two of waiting).
CLICK HERE to Read Part 2, which will explore the top two likely landing places for the Leopards.
***Please note that the author is a graduate of Louisville High School and is currently teaches 8th grade at Louisville Middle School. This blog originally ran as an article for the Louisville’s weekly newspaper, The Louisville Herald.