Conference Change-ups Make for New (And Old) Friendships

November 20, 2013 by Jamie Ward

It’s not you, it’s me.

That’s sort of how it started.

A few long-time friends split up. (They were going in different directions.)

Feelings were hurt. New cliques were formed.

And two of the longest, truest friends stuck together, refusing to go to any party unless the other was invited.

As one principal said this week, “Frankly, I’m tired of talking about it.”

It’s all so high school? Yes, actually, it is.

As the dust settles on this summer of major conference changes for area schools, particularly Geauga County, this is what the landscape now looks like.

Newbury avoided all of the drama by being the first to join the Northeastern Athletic Conference, effective next season, breaking its contract with the Chagrin Valley Conference.

The new superconference on Cleveland’s east side is the Western Reserve Conference, reborn from the ashes of the Premier Athletic Conference.

And after 10 CVC schools announced they would break off to form their own conference, the CVC remains essentially intact with 16 schools, though it will not have that name when it begins in 2015-16.

For now, let’s call it the Great Lakes Conference.

The GLC, which has yet to be approved by boards of education and has hit snags in finishing a constitution, would have two divisions: big schools and small schools.

The big school division, or Lake Division, would feature West Geauga, Chagrin Falls, Perry, Wickliffe, Orange, Beachwood, Geneva and Harvey.

The small school division, or Erie Division, will include Cardinal, Berkshire, Kirtland, Fairport, Richmond Hts., Hawken, Independence and Cuyahoga Hts.

Another proposal being discussed is that certain teams in the Erie Division will be able to move up to the big school division on a two-year basis, and then decide whether to move back down, or stay, according to conversations at the Berkshire Schools Board meeting Monday night.

If a particular sport feels the need to compete against better competition, say Kirtland volleyball, they could have option, said one source.

It had been reported West Geauga would join the WRC, but Principal Jay Bishop and Superintendent Geoff Palmer changed directions after committing to the conference, according to those at WRC meetings that West Geauga attended.

But West Geauga found a strange bedfellow in Geneva, and both decided to leave the WRC and head to the CVC.

“We weighed a couple different things,” Bishop said. “We’ve got some good rivalries in the CVC. The WRC was a great group of schools, but we’d be the smallest in that group. That was a concern for us. We have a declining enrollment right now.”

Relationships, ultimately, were a big part of the new configurations. Chagrin Falls was one of the original CVC defectors that said they would be happy to stay with their natural rivals, the Wolverines.

“We wanted to be in a conference with them,” said Chagrin Falls Athletic Director Charlie Barch. “They are a little bigger, but we are close. You have to do what’s best for your school.”

Barch said once schools Chagrin Falls’ size began to move, it was join the new wave or be stuck with schools — Kenston and Aurora — that were much bigger than they.

“We talked to coaches and gathered thoughts,” Barch said. “We wanted to see how we compete. We did a lot of research. Some teams may struggle. It’s not perfect. But overall it’s good for our school.”

Barch said he thought Geneva was a strong addition to the division, though admitted Chagrin Falls has not competed much against them historically.

West Geauga pointed to its rivalries with Perry and Orange, especially in football, as big reasons to join the GLC.

“The kids in the CVC have grown up together,” Bishop said.

Transportation has been an issue from the beginning. Early rumors had Rocky River and Bay joining the GLC, but those west side bus trips did not excite many members.

“We absolutely had some concerns about traveling to the west side in the middle of the winter,” Bishop said. “I suppose that did change some scenarios.”

For the old members of the PAC, namely North and South, a new conference meant that Lakeside, located in Ashtabula and the farthest of any PAC school, could be eliminated. Lakeside was not asked to join the WRC, making the Dragons and their student-athletes perhaps the one real loser during the fallout. A call left with Lakeside was not immediately returned.

But with all the he said/she said of the past months, no two schools looked out for one another like Berkshire and Cardinal.

The Huskies were not originally invited to join the break-off conference. But the Badgers would not move on without the Huskies, their kinsmen. “We thought we should be with them,” Principal Steve Reedy said. “We’re a team. We stick together.”

“We did a lot of research,” Reedy continued. “Brian (Hiscox) helped and attended some other league meetings, but we were in the driver’s seat.”

Cardinal looked at the NAC, which includes Ledgemont and now Newbury, but when Rocky River and Bay pulled out of GLC talks, other options opened.

Cardinal Principal Jim Howard said meetings continue about GLC and that the hope is that school boards could vote to join sometime in January.

While it seems these 16 schools would continue as the Chagrin Valley Conference minus Kenston and Aurora with the addition of Geneva — it’s not that easy. The Bombers and Greenmen did not wish for the name to continue if they weren’t involved.

The Greater Cleveland Conference had naming rights issues; the Eastern Suburban Conference had been bantered about.

“It’s hard to come up with a name, it turns out,” said Cardinal Athletic Director Andy Cardinal. “Quite honestly, I don’t care what it’s called as long as we’re in the league.”

Having two size divisions in the GLC will eliminate the controversial crossover games in the CVC, which are often in unfair in football because of the dominance of Kirtland and Cuyahoga Hts. of late.

Each football team will play seven conference games to determine the league champion. In boys and girls basketball and other team sports, such as baseball, softball and volleyball, they will play each team twice, for a total of 14 league games.

GLC and the WRC will not begin until the 2015-16 school year, making next season the last for the CVC and the PAC.