http://www.logandaily.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=73&ArticleID=125337
Athens' SEOAL legacy: 162 championships
Craig Dunn
of The Logan Daily News
Like Elvis, Athens High School has left the building.
In actuality, when the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League boys and girls track meets concluded last Saturday afternoon, AHS officially departed the SEOAL for the smaller confines of the Tri-Valley Conference's Ohio Division.
In reality, however, Athens left long before that... the summer of 2006, to be precise, when it announced it was leaving less than two months before the SEOAL was slated to expand to 10 schools.
Athens fulfilled its league obligations, ran a very smooth meet at Rutter Field last week in its SEOAL swan song, and its athletes and coaches gave their all to the very end. Many didn't want to leave. But it was obvious that, during its two seasons of lame-duck status, Athens had lost interest in the SEOAL at the high administrative level.
Athens was, of course, a charter member of the SEOAL (along with Logan, Gallipolis, Ironton, Jackson, Nelsonville, Portsmouth and Wellston) in 1925. The school left for three seasons (1928-29 through 1930-31) and was a member for 80 of the league's 83 seasons.
Back in 2006, Athens administrators cited travel concerns and late nights for its students as the primary reasons for leaving. While those reasons are valid, they also rang as hollow then as they still do now because they seemed like excuses.
Not that travel isn't a major concern because, obviously, it is, as I've cited before in this space... but it's a problem for everyone that extends far beyond Athens County, Hocking County or the SEOAL.
Unless your name is Bill Gates or Donald Trump, each and every one of us deals with the ever-increasing burden of travel expenses, which gets worse every time someone in the middle east finds an excuse to increase the cost for a barrel of crude oil.
There's still no doubt in my mind, and in the minds of most people who follow the league, the real reason Athens left was that most AHS teams were no longer competitive. The school had gotten a bit smaller and its teams simply no longer dominated SEOAL competition.
From talking to people I know around the TVC, you can bet your bottom dollar that Alexander, Belpre, Meigs, Nelsonville-York, Wellston and Vinton County (all smaller schools than Athens) are going to do their darndest to make sure Athens doesn't dominate them, either. It's a very competitive league.
The TVC doesn't have boys soccer, girls soccer, boys tennis or girls tennis - sports in which Athens has always fared well. And there's this: not long after announcing the school was leaving the league, Athens asked to remain in the SEOAL in soccer and tennis only.
In recent years, Athens just wasn't competitive in the profile sports of football and boys basketball. A look through recent records shows that's been the case for quite a while now.
Athens won only four football titles in its final 40 years in the league. The Bulldogs' last outright grid title was way back in 1968; they shared the 1990 (four ways), 1989 and 1971 crowns.
In basketball, the Bulldogs - who were great for so many years under the legendary Charles McAfee - fell on hard times a long time ago. They won just one title (1992-93) over the last 18 seasons and just five overall since a stretch when they won eight titles (and shared a ninth with Wellston) during a 10-year period of dominance from 1960-61 through 1969-70.
Overall, Athens High School leaves the SEOAL with a legacy of 162 total championships - the best all-time - including 115 boys crowns and 47 girls titles. Logan (134 total titles, 96 boys and 38 girls) is second, followed by Marietta (107-73-34), Gallipolis (95-72-23) and Jackson (52-42-10).
Athens departs with the most titles in boys basketball (19), baseball (24), volleyball (nine) and girls cross country (14); tied with Marietta for the most in boys cross country (14); second-most in golf (10), boys soccer (six), boys track (11), boys tennis (13), girls soccer (two), girls tennis (seven) and girls track (seven), and third-most in wrestling (six) and girls basketball (six).
Thus, in championships, Athens leaves in the top-three in 14 of 16 SEOAL sports. The only exceptions are football (fifth with 12) and softball (tied for fifth with two).
And when you combine all-time won-loss-tie records, the Bulldogs/Lady Bulldogs also leave with the second-best overall league winning percentage (.622, trailing only Marietta) in all 16 SEOAL sports. Other than in softball (179-197 record, .476), Athens had a winning SEOAL record in every sport.
(A sidenote: the top all-time won-loss records and percentages - which compute sports such as track and cross country, for example, into wins, losses and ties - are Marietta, 2,256 wins, 1,235 losses, 21 ties, .645; Athens, 3,653-2,214-54, .622, and Logan, 3,410-2,403-48, .586. Percentages for other current SEOAL members are Ironton, .543; Chillicothe, .529; Gallipolis, .527; Zanesville, .502; Warren, .480; Jackson, .422, and Portsmouth, .400. Just thought you'd like to know).
However, while Athens won 20 championships since the 1999-2000 season, 13 were in sports where AHS won't have a chance to win a TVC title: 10 in tennis (six boys, four girls) and three in soccer (two girls, one boys). The other seven championships were in volleyball (two), golf, wrestling, baseball, girls cross country and girls basketball.
In fact, a Logan High School graduate was head coach for Athens' final SEOAL championship. Jeff Short coached the Bulldogs to championship No. 162 when the Bulldogs beat Chillicothe 3-2 a couple weeks ago for the 2008 boys tennis crown.
I've been vocal about this subject not because of the mere fact that Athens left the league, but for the back-door way it was done, the scheduling mess it caused the other nine schools, and because, at the time expansion was being considered, Athens simply could have voted against it but didn't.
An Athens "nay" vote would have made the count 4-2 (Jackson voted against expansion), which would have been less than the three-fourths majority needed for approval.
But I promise this is the last time I donate this entire column to this subject. It's all said and done. Water under the bridge. The book is closed. You get the picture.
Elvis... er, Athens... has left the league. Good luck in the TVC.
