The recent announcement of the Buckeye 8 Athletic League expansion, along with the selection of Don Cash as league commissioner, did much to quell any swirling rumors surrounding the league.

The conference is no longer shrinking, set to lose yet another charter member. Instead, the expansion is seeing the conference grow to 12 teams in the 2025-26 school year.

More importantly, not only is Martins Ferry staying, but three additional teams are joining the fold, including former longtime member Buckeye Local.

Joining the Panthers in returning to the fold will be East Liverpool, along with newcomers Barnesville and Brooke.

Twelve teams, two divisions – North and South for all sports not named football, with the gridiron receiving a Big School and Small School designation.

“We are excited to be staying in the Buckeye 8,” Martins Ferry athletic director Greg Harkness said. “We think with us staying, and the additional of the three schools it will make for a very competitive conference.

“We think the future of the Buckeye 8 is very bright.”

Good competition and ease of scheduling are two major bonuses for the respective schools.

But for two of these schools – one a returner and the other a newcomer – it should help foster a growing rivalry that in all likelihood should have grown decades ago if not for one major hurdle. The bridge, or more specifically, the lack of one. But thanks to the recently erected Wellsburg Bridge, a trek that once took an hour now takes barely 20 minutes.

“They are the closest to us now besides Ferry,” Buckeye Local athletics director Jeff Patrick said. “It’s a 15-20 minute ride.

“It should help grow the rivalry. We are very similar to each other. Brooke is a little bigger demographically, but our student athletes and makeup are very similar.”

Brooke athletic director Bill Garvey agrees.

In fact, even if Brooke didn’t join the Buckeye 8, he said he’d likely have been giving Patrick a call to take advantage of their new nearby potential rival.

“Even if we didn’t join, I would have liked to have gotten it done so we played them more, period,” Garvey said. “It just makes sense. Just like joining the Buckeye 8 makes sense from a travel standpoint.

“We’re excited about the opportunity.”

Garvey pointed out Brooke’s joining of the Buckeye 8 isn’t official quite yet. The Brooke County Board of Education will vote on the proposal at its next meeting on April 22. So while close, it’s not a done deal yet.

While awaiting official approval, however, Garvey noted how great of an opportunity his is for Brooke High School and its athletes.

“We’re happy with the opportunity to join the Buckeye 8,” he said. “It’s a strong conference and this will allow us to create a few more rivalries. We play some of them consistently now.”

These potential rivalries are now also more in line, size-wise, with the Bruins enrollment. Numbers have fallen in Brooke County through the years and when the WVSSAC announced the four-class system for more than just basketball, Brooke dropped from the largest class, its traditional home, to Class AAA. That means that playing Wheeling Park, John Marshall, Morgantown and University — schools often double or near double the Bruins’ enrollment – was no longer necessary.

Playing teams of appropriate size in West Virginia, aside from Weir and Oak Glen, would have necessitated a large increase in travel. That will no longer be an issue.

Travel distance is a big part of Buckeye Local returning to the fold.

Like Brooke, Buckeye Local is experiencing shrinking enrollment and the Mid-Ohio Valley League (MOVL) offered teams with smaller enrollment sizes.

Team like Shenandoah, Caldwell, Monroe Central and even Barnesville still offered strong competition but at smaller enrollment sizes compared to larger schools like Beaver Local and East Liverpool.

The downside? Travel. Once a week for football, especially on a Friday night, isn’t that big an issue.

But midweek trips to Noble County meant Panthers athletes in all other sports were returning home, sometimes as late as 11 p.m. on a school night. It’s not easy on the students, nor on the travel budget.

“Our big thing is we wanted to play local,” Patrick said. “We were anticipating leaving the MOVL because of the travel, and then rejoining the Buckeye 8 popped back up on our radar.

“We wanted to play local teams anyway. It has a bigger effect and it just means more.”

Patrick said he wanted to get Martins Ferry back on the schedule anyway, one of the school’s chief rivals along with Harrison Central and potentially now, Brooke.

Buckeye’s MOVL affiliation ends Nov. 1. Come spring of 2025, Buckeye will be a full Buckeye 8 member, with football and basketball coming online during the 2025-26 school year.

——

2025-26 Buckeye 8

FOOTBALL

Big School

Beaver Local, Brooke, Cambridge, East Liverpool, Indian Creek, St. Clairsville.

Small School

Barnesville, Bellaire, Buckeye Local, Harrison Central, Martins Ferry, Union Local.

——

OTHER SPORTS

North Division

Beaver Local, Brooke, Buckeye Local, East Liverpool, Harrison Central, Indian Creek.

South Division

Barnesville, Bellaire, Cambridge, Martins Ferry, St. Clairsville, Union Local.