Logan is at a crossroad

[dazed&confused]

Jeez, what happened to this thread? It's been hijacked. I thought it was about the state of the football program. Or is everyone treating it like my Browns? Well yea, they lose but it's still good old Logan High.

[LHS 72]

Is real changes coming to our football program or are going to have the same old same old another 3-7 season OMG!

[LHS 72]

Why was Logan shut out of hosting a football playoff game this year?

[Paladin]

Did they bid ?

[TRENCHFOOT]

Our Athletic director could give ya some "award winning" answers to these questions for ya'll

[noreply66]

Not many skeeters out there. They don't travel in schools just come in swarms.

[loganlocos]

Did they bid ?

Logan DID bid up through the regional finals.

Logan did not bid for the semi-finals as they didn't believe they could get enough volunteers during Thanksgiving weekend.

[Paladin]

Makes sense

[moonshine]

Will there be a Major Announcement next week concerning Logan Football?

[Chief Kdogg]

Will there be a Major Announcement next week concerning Logan Football?

One word.

WHEATIES!

[Chieftain2009]

Saw in the LDN today, Logan is in with early meetings about forming a new league with several D1 and D2 schools as well as Zanesville.

[sibibis45]

Can someone post the article in the paper.

[1987chieftains]

yes, please post if someone can.

[CruiserChief95]

LOGAN — Orphaned by the folding of the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League several months ago, Logan High School’s sports teams have been searching near and far for an athletic conference in which to participate.

With their quest to join an existing league having reached a standstill, LHS administrators have taken matters into their own hands and are looking at the possibility of forming a new athletic conference consisting of larger schools east and south of the Interstate 270 outerbelt.
LHS administrators met with representatives from Canal Winchester, Groveport, Lancaster, Mount Vernon, Newark, Reynoldsburg, Teays Valley and Zanesville high schools last week.
While all are currently members of other athletic conferences, all have expressed interest in continuing discussions about forming their own stand-alone league. All of said schools are from one-school districts.
More than half of them (Canal Winchester, Groveport, Lancaster, Newark and Reynoldsburg) are currently members of the Ohio Capital Conference, one of the nation’s largest high school leagues that currently has 31 members.
A fourth school from the Olentangy district will join the league in a couple years upon completion of a brand-new campus, which will match the conference’s all-time high-water mark of 32 members.
The OCC is currently dominated by multiple-school districts, with seven districts accounting for 20 members. Four schools (Central Crossing, Grove City, Franklin Heights and Westland) comprise the South-Western District, with three schools from Westerville (North, South and Central), Olentangy (Olentangy, Liberty and Orange), Dublin (Coffman, Jerome and Scioto), Hilliard (Davidson, Darby and Bradley) and two each from Pickerington (North and Central) and Worthington (Kilbourne and Thomas Worthington).
The other members are Gahanna, Marysville, Upper Arlington, Delaware, Big Walnut and New Albany.
Mount Vernon is a former OCC member and is now a member of the Ohio Cardinal Conference. Teays Valley is in the Mid-State League and Zanesville, once a member of the SEOAL, resides in the East Central Ohio League.
In a news release sent to local media Wednesday evening, the Logan-Hocking School District pointed out that, during the recent winter sports parent/athlete meeting, it was shared that the administration was in the process of sending letters to schools who might possibly be interested in forming a new league.
This came about after much discussion from a steering committee of LHS administrators and former Logan coaches Ron Janey, Dale Amyx and Jim Robinson.
“The committee brainstormed league opportunities and options and what actions should take place in moving forward in finding a league for our athletic teams,” it was said in the news release.
“From this discussion sparked the process when LHS sent a letter of inquiry to nearly 20 schools in central and southeastern Ohio to see if there was an interest in forming a new league and nearly half responded.”
If this new conference comes to pass — again, it’s only in the discussion stages, and the list of interested schools very well could fluctuate and even expand — it would be chock-full of great rivalries, good, solid competition in all sports and, for Logan teams, travel that would be much better than it ever was in the old SEOAL.
In football, Groveport, Lancaster, Newark and Reynoldsburg are currently Division I, Canal Winchester, Logan, Mount Vernon and Teays Valley are Division II, and Zanesville is Division III.
Logan already plays Teays Valley; Zanesville is back on the schedule this fall; Canal Winchester is Logan’s pre-season OHSAA Jamboree opponent, and the Chiefs have also played Lancaster, Newark and Reynoldsburg in recent seasons.
Eight of the nine schools are DI in all other sports. The exception is Zanesville, the smallest of the nine schools, which fluctuates between DI and DII. Reynoldsburg is the largest.
Except in a few cases for Logan, the southern-most school and Mount Vernon, located furthest to the north in Knox County, travel would not be an issue.
A check of Google Maps shows that, with the exception of Mount Vernon (70 miles), Logan’s longest trip would be roughly 50 miles and 70 minutes to Zanesville, which was one of Logan’s shortest treks during the three seasons ZHS was a member of the SEOAL.
Logan would have an average drive time of approximately 45 miles and 55 minutes… numbers that drop even more when excluding the trip to Mount Vernon.
In the release, the LHS administration went on to state that additional meetings will be held over the next few months to see if these schools and possibly others want to go ahead and form a league.
However, they also stressed that LHS is also still maintaining discussions with the Mid-State League, Licking County League and Muskingum Valley League about possible membership.
Logan is currently in its first full school year without an athletic conference since 1925, when the SEOAL was born.
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.
Like Logan, Warren also does not have a full-time conference but does participate in the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference, a 50-school league in eastern Ohio and western West Virginia that plays loose schedules with other members and declares its champions on a points basis and not via round-robin or double round-robin schedules.
The only Logan teams who currently play a league schedule are the boys and girls bowling teams, who participate in both the South Central Ohio Bowling Conference and the First Capital Conference.

[Paladin]

Interesting, but I doubt if half of those listed are willing to move. Still, it's a starting point.

[Chieftain2009]

Would be awesome if this would happen, would be a very competitive conference.

[CruiserChief95]

Could be a great league if done right. Personally, I would leave Lancaster and Reynoldsburg out for the simple reason that they are just too big IMO. They are in the high 600-low 700 enrollment for boys and the rest of the schools are 300-500. Plus, I don't think either one would leave the OCC anyway. Could still play them non-conference though because geographically, it makes sense.
I think a little soul searching from the schools that have been contacted could lead them to realize how good of a move this could be. Like I said before, being in the OCC has done us no favors here in Groveport. Along with our new football field and high school, a more competitive league would be a welcome change.

[1987chieftains]

thanks for posting cruiser!

[cbolt]

I thought Logan wanted to get away from playing big, bruising teams like Lancaster and Reynoldsburg, too big and nothing to gain they said. I personally would love to see it ,but it's probably just a pipedream. Zanesville and Teays ,and maybe Canal I can see ,but not the others.

[loganlocos]

The fact that some of this news is now public is a good sign.

Teays, Logan, Groveport, and Canal could really be a great start to a league. Newark, Lancaster, and Zanesville should really all be in a league together as well.

Whether those two separate groups can all fit into one league is the hang up. Mt Vernon is a travel challenge and Reynoldsburg seems like more of a likely OCC mainstay to me.


Newark and Lancaster are interesting in regard to the OCC. Newark can't be happy in their division. While it works for football, at the end its a basketball school and the league holds them back in hoops.

Plus, these are all single HS districts in a league full of 3 and 4 school districts, which limits their voting power.