South Range shifts athletic course
BEAVER TOWNSHIP — The earthquake regarding Youngstown-area scholastic athletic league realignment has begun.
Fresh off the final games of the defunct Inter-Tri County League, South Range got yet another opportunity for league membership when disgruntled members of the All-American Conference came calling.
The South Range Board of Education voted 4-1 on Tuesday to join Girard, Niles, Poland, Ashtabula Jefferson, Struthers, Hubbard and Lakeview in what will be called the North East Eight Athletic League.
“The timeline moved pretty fast,” South Range superintendent Dennis Dunham said. “We were contacted by those schools on Thursday and decided to schedule a special board meeting this week to discuss the issue. We think it’s a good fit for us. It says a lot about your school, your coaches and your student athletes that someone else thinks highly enough of you to extend an invitation.”
The Raiders will begin play in the league at the start of the 2018-19 school year.
Dunham said that the Raiders also received an invitation on Monday to join a league comprised of All-American Conference Blue Tier members Champion, Newton Falls, Campbell, Liberty, LaBrae, and Brookfield. Both offers were weighed during Tuesday’s board meeting. Dunham said there was also an earlier meeting with the school’s varsity coaches in which he said there was a unanimous desire expressed to join the North East Eight League.
“We decided it’s a better fit for us based on a number of factors, including proximity and financial impact,” Dunham said. “Also, some of the smaller AAC schools didn’t offer all of the programs that we do, so this was a better fit from a scheduling standpoint.”
The Raiders will be the smallest school in their new league. Dunham said he is fully aware of the challenges that lie ahead, but sees the opportunity for the athletic programs to benefit in the long run
“We know it’s certainly not going to be like what it was in the ITCL for us,” Dunham said. “But at the same time, we had a lot of success in the regular season, but it didn’t always translate to the postseason. We think that playing up a division or two consistently during the regular season, it’s going to help us long-term for the tournaments. We felt our kids deserved the opportunity to compete at that level.”
After the ITCL split ways last year, South Range came to an agreement to join Salem, West Branch, Minerva, Marlington, Alliance, Canton South and Carrollton in the Eastern Buckeye Conference. South Range’s membership in that league ceased on Tuesday.
The Eastern Buckeye Conference formed because Northeastern Buckeye Conference members had become unhappy with Louisville dominating most competitions. Louisville is the largest school in the NBC by a wide margin.
The Eastern Buckeye Conference is set to begin play in the 2018-19 school year.
“We’re sorry for any inconvenience this causes the EBC, they were very nice to deal with,” Dunham said. “We just felt, going forward, that this was the better fit for us.”
NBC and EBC commissioner James Carmichael said South Range did not notify the league of their intention to split.
“We haven’t heard from them,” Carmichael said.
Carmichael said he had only heard the news reports regarding South Range’s departure on Tuesday night. He said the league did not have a backup plan because he thought with eight teams the league would not need it.
“Obviously we’ll now have to meet to see what to do,” Carmichael said.
This development has sent shock waves into school administrations across the Youngstown metro region. It may be just the thing Crestview Local has been looking for.
The Rebels have been without traditional league affiliation since the ITCL voted to dissolve last year. Crestview did take steps to remedy scheduling problems by entering the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference. That conference, however, does not have mandatory scheduling.
Crestview superintendent Matthew Manley said there have been non-formal discussions with smaller All-American Conference schools Champion, LaBrae, Liberty, Campbell, Brookfield and Newton Falls on forming a new league.
Crestview was a finalist for the open position in the EBC last year, but Manley said Crestview has not had any contact with members of that league recently.
“I’m not sure the (Eastern Buckeye Conference) knew what South Range was going to do,” Manley said.
Manley stressed that Crestview is open to discussions for getting into a new league, but it has to feel wanted.
“We’re like the person leaning up against the wall at a dance,” Manley said. “We’re hoping someone will ask us to dance so we feel wanted.”
He also said that Crestview was committed to continuing OVAC membership along side any potential new eight-school league it might be invited to join.
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