"Hypothetical" new D1/D2 league south of Columbus

[formerfcfan]

When the traffic lights at Cemetery Road and, later, Winchester Road, were taken out, a handful of businesses were met with no option but to shutter their doors. Kind of sad, but such is life.

There is no good “out-flow” pattern, to 33, if the Pickerington Road intersection is taken out. You can thank ODOT for removing the Amanda Northern extension that once stood, which would’ve provided for better traffic diffusion.


I believe these were the light set-ups on 33, west of Coonpath Road...

• Cemetery Road
• Bowen Road/High St (of Canal Winchester)
• Hill Road
• Pickerington Road (still extant)
• Winchester Road/High St (of Carroll)

Don’t believe that Amanda Northern had a light. It’s been fifteen years (can you believe it?) since all four of those lights were on 33. Now it’s just Pickton Road.

[noreply66]

The Pickerington Road at one time had the flashing light letting you know the light was about to change. I was told they couldn't get them to work right. At times they would start to flash and kick the main lights out. Anyone know for sure?

[formerfcfan]

I believe they, along with the one at the former Carroll light, were taken out because it was believed that they incentivized dangerous driving.

[cbolt]

I heard that too about lights with them flashing lights, it makes people gun the gas to try and beat them and I admit guilty as charged

[Chief02]

I’ve heard the schools are to get together on Friday. Probably “do or die” time. At least for this phase of action.

Credit to Logan admin for busting their butts. Time to find out if they’ve been jerked around and used as leverage or not.

Either way, I’m glad Logan has and will continue to be proactive.

I take it the meeting either didn’t happen or it’s like Fort Knox information wise from the meeting?

[Orange and Brown]

With Marrietta wanting out of their league and Warren still trying to find one, wouldn't it make sense for Logan, Marrietta, and Warren to get together and try to woo Parkersburg and South to join a new league with them?
Assuming Warren doesn't get the votes for the TVC...

[Chief02]

With Marrietta wanting out of their league and Warren still trying to find one, wouldn't it make sense for Logan, Marrietta, and Warren to get together and try to woo Parkersburg and South to join a new league with them?
Assuming Warren doesn't get the votes for the TVC...

Seems to make logical sense, but Logan’s future, competition wise, needs to be north and not south in my opinion. I don’t see that type of a league being a long term viable solution either. Administrators should be, and I believe are, looking for a solution that sets us on a path for stability and not turbulence league wise.

[Orange and Brown]

With Marrietta wanting out of their league and Warren still trying to find one, wouldn't it make sense for Logan, Marrietta, and Warren to get together and try to woo Parkersburg and South to join a new league with them?
Assuming Warren doesn't get the votes for the TVC...

Seems to make logical sense, but Logan’s future, competition wise, needs to be north and not south in my opinion. I don’t see that type of a league being a long term viable solution either. Administrators should be, and I believe are, looking for a solution that sets us on a path for stability and not turbulence league wise.

Finding a stable and competitive league is definitely important.
Whatever they have cooking, I hope it works out.
I wish the MVL would have sent them an invite when they decided to go to 2 divisions.

[Logangrad]

With Logan having to compete in the Central District with all their post season tournaments it makes zero sense imo to form a league with a team from WVA or a majority from SE Ohio. The logistics for their post season would mandate they need to be in with teams they can compete with, that get them ready for post season play and sustain a long term outlook. With scheduling 20 plus games in almost every sport, Logan needs to be able to have assurance theyre not looking again for a league once they get into one; IE the rumblings of the league Jackson is in. Find something long term that will be a great benefit for their athletes now and in the future.

[NYBuckeye96]

How did the meeting on Friday go? Did the schools meet?

[Chief02]

Either they didn’t meet or a non-disclosure agreement is in effect.

[TRENCHFOOT]

Either they didn’t meet or a non-disclosure agreement is in effect.

[loganlocos]

I think I may have gotten some bad information. I can't confirm there was a meeting on Friday. Would have to think a decision needs to be made soon.

If my info was bad I apologize for sharing it.

[1987chieftains]

I just hope we get into one and it doesn't take forever.

[Chief02]

I think I may have gotten some bad information. I can't confirm there was a meeting on Friday. Would have to think a decision needs to be made soon.

If my info was bad I apologize for sharing it.

No problem Locos. I think many are expecting or hoping for a meeting soon. I cannot imagine this dragging out much longer considering we are nearing the end of the school year.

[CruiserChief95]

It's ok Locos. It's been pretty quiet in Cruiser Country lately, at least publicly anyway. I know AD supports us moving on from OCC and would need to notify by June, but crickets otherwise.

[loganlocos]

https://www.logandaily.com/news/formati ... 2709c.html

New league put on hold with not enough interested members.

[91raider97bobcat]

https://www.logandaily.com/news/formati ... 2709c.html

New league put on hold with not enough interested members.

Link doesn't work without a subscription...

[noreply66]

There is about 12 interested but not at this time.

[CruiserChief95]

LOGAN — It appears as though the proposed formation of a new high school athletic conference involving Logan High School’s sports programs will have to wait at least one more school year.

While Logan’s efforts to establish a new league over the last several months have attracted the interest of no less than a dozen other schools and some constructive dialogue, not enough of them are yet ready to leave the conferences to which they are already committed in order to make it a reality.

Unless Logan is able to join an already-existing league in the near future — and LHS has made application to, had discussions with, and been turned down by a half-dozen conferences — it could be at least three school years before Logan gets into a league.

A newly-formed league might not be able to get off the ground now until at least the 2021-22 school year.

If that would be the case, most LHS athletes who are currently in at least their freshman year as Chieftains and Lady Chiefs would never get the opportunity to compete in a league. Only the bowling teams are members of an established conference, and this fall the soccer teams are going to play in an independent, soccer-only five-school conference.

A number of the schools interested in a new league are from the Ohio Capital Conference, based around Columbus and in counties contiguous to Franklin County, many of whom were displeased with proposed divisional realignment among its 32 schools.

Schools planning to leave the OCC must give two years’ notice of their intentions, and the deadline to do so (June 1) is rapidly approaching.

Not enough of the schools who have been interested in the proposed new league are ready to commit, however, so once the June 1 deadline passes it will add an additional year on to the wait if those schools eventually want to leave the OCC.

That would mean the earliest any OCC school could contractually depart would be after the 2020-21 school year.

Seven schools — Logan, Canal Winchester, Groveport-Madison, Teays Valley, Reynoldsburg, Lancaster and Newark — have been involved in the most-recent discussions, but the process has stalled.

“At this time, the schools that were in discussion with Logan in forming a new league are at a standstill,” said Theresa Schultheiss, LHS activities director. “Reynoldsburg, Lancaster and Newark have decided to remain in the OCC.

“The other schools — Logan, Canal Winchester, Groveport-Madison and Teays Valley — will continue to keep options open and move forward if other schools show interest,” she added.

Schultheiss and Monte Bainter, superintendent of Logan-Hocking Schools, have been spearheading the new league effort.

It’s unknown as to whether Canal Winchester and/or Groveport would give notice by June 1 since, at least right now, there would not be enough schools to form a league.

While a commitment from at least eight schools was sought to establish the new league, a viable conference would probably only need a minimum of six… exactly the same number of schools that comprise four of the OCC’s five divisions both now and with its new alignment.

With the exception of Teays Valley (the largest school in the Mid-State League, which is growing at a rapid pace and could eventually outgrow the MSL in the same manner Pickerington and New Albany did in years past) and Logan, all are members of the OCC, though a few schools from other conferences have shown interest and may still be interested down the line.

The five OCC schools (as well as several others) did not like the conference’s original realignment, which is done every two years. The OCC realignment plan came out last fall at about the same time LHS sent out letters to a number of schools seeking interest about forming a new league.

Lancaster and Newark were interested from the very start, and Reynoldsburg came on board for talks shortly afterward.

But a revised OCC realignment, and other apparent concessions from the league, eventually convinced Lancaster, Newark and Reynoldsburg to remain in the conference. Reynoldsburg is one of the OCC’s original members.

Schools from other leagues — Whitehall-Yearling (MSL), Zanesville (East Central Ohio League). and Watkins Memorial and Licking Heights (Licking County League) — also got directly involved, and a few other schools at least expressed interest, but eventually dropped out for one reason or another.

The revised OCC alignment, which begins in the fall of 2020 (and, this time, will be held together for a minimum of four years instead of the usual two) has — perhaps not coincidentally — Lancaster, Newark, Groveport and Reynoldsburg in a six-school division with Central Crossing and perennial league and state powerhouse Pickerington Central.

Canal Winchester, meanwhile, was thrown into the league’s lone eight-school division with Big Walnut, Delaware, Dublin Scioto, Franklin Heights, Westerville North, Westerville South and Worthington Kilbourne… none of whom could be considered natural rivals for the Indians.

Even with the addition of Olentangy Berlin — the fourth school in the booming Olentangy district, which will open this fall — Canal Winchester is still the smallest of the league’s 32 members. Gahanna is the largest and Reynoldsburg is the second-largest while Lancaster is 11th, Newark 13th, Groveport 23rd and Berlin 30th.

Forming a new league will almost assuredly have to include a handful of current OCC schools as well as a couple other larger schools from other leagues.

For Logan, however, it appears the ordeal of not having a league in which to participate will continue… and once the school’s teams reach the post-season, things go from bad to worse.

Logan is Division I in all sports except for football, where the Chieftains are in Division II. However, while there are seven divisions in football — and not all schools qualify for the post-season playoffs —there are no more than four divisions in other sports, meaning Logan gets lumped in with much-larger schools all across the board.

Although many schools (and potential leagues) think otherwise, Logan is by no means a dominant DI school. For a number of reasons, Logan is basically DI in numbers only but really should be Division II (Division III in football) for a variety of reasons that are not taken into consideration by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

The OHSAA’s “competitive balance” initiative did absolutely nothing to help Logan’s plight, and probably never will.

While Logan would be a perfect fit for any conference in which the majority of its members are Division II, other conferences see Logan as either too large, too far away, or — especially in football — as being potentially dominant.

And although Logan is in the Southeast District, its teams are relegated to the Central District in most sports — particularly boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball and volleyball — for post-season tournament play since there are not enough DI schools in the SE District for stand-alone sectional/district tournaments.

Logan will thus soon conclude its first full school year without an athletic conference since the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League was formed in 1925.

SEOAL membership reached as many as 10 schools in 2007 but gradually dwindled by one school nearly every season before Jackson departed for the Frontier Athletic Conference after the 2016-17 school year.

That brought membership down to just Logan and Warren and ended the league after a 92-year run, forcing Logan to compete in athletics as an independent — with no end to that dilemma in sight.