West Branch's West Branch's Jeremiah Thomas runs against Salem in a 2025 game.

West Branch and Alliance’s school districts issued a joint statement on Wednesday that they will not pursue membership into the All-American Conference.

The school systems had been entertaining joining the AAC in the wake of several Eastern Buckeye Conference schools announcing they would depart for the new Northeast Senate League for the start of the 2028-29 school year. Salem announced at the end of May it will join the Northeast 8 in everything but football at the start of the 2027-28 school year.

“The Alliance City Schools and West Branch Local Schools thank the All-American Conference for their hospitality and discussions about membership over the last few months,” the statement by Alliance superintendent Rob Gress and West Branch superintendent Matthew Manley said. “We have been impressed with its leadership. We respect their honesty, patience, and class. The schools have been kind and accommodating. We thank them for their time; however, we could not reach an agreement for membership that feels right for us or them at this time. The enrollment disparity and divisional differences made it impossible for both our schools to feel comfortable.”

The All-American Conference is made up of larger schools in the Youngstown metro area including Warren Harding, Austintown Fitch, Boardman, Canfield, Howland and also Louisville.

The statement said West Branch and Alliance would continue to schedule AAC schools, but a full membership did not feel right at this time.

The EBC will continue to exist with Minerva, Marlington, Carrollton, Salem, West Branch and Alliance for the the next school year. Those schools minus Salem will also play out the 2027-2028 school year.

West Branch and Alliance will hang onto the EBC moniker after that in hopes that the league could be revived.

“We will work with the league commissioner to add additional teams into the EBC,” the statement said.

The statement also said West Branch and Alliance will play a football game in Week 10 of the 2028 season. Since 2011, West Branch and Salem had played in the final week of regular the season except for the COVID year of 2020.

West Branch athletic director Ryan Wolf said the bulk of the 2028 Warrior football schedule has not been completed yet, but he expects to get with Salem soon to figure things out.

Wolf indicated Alliance and West Branch wanted to play Week 10 out of unity and to keep that rivalry alive.

The statement did say that Alliance and West Branch would work together to find a new league home even if it exists outside of the EBC.

“We will also pursue all options to be in a conference that feels right for the Alliance and West Branch Schools. In this world of volatile conference realignment and broken promises: we know whatever the future holds, we will work together for the betterment of our two schools,” the statement read.