SVC Expansion - Thoughts/Debate

[shoelace]

I have heard possible grumblings the past few years what would be the benefits and/or drawbacks? Who would be potential teams to expand with?

[jimbobhampton]

What about Vinton County? If/when the OHSAA makes the proposed changes to criteria for what division schools are in, VC would likely drop down 1 or 2 divisions. They would actually be playing where they belong.

[shoelace]

My first thoughts were VC, Waverly, Western, and Eastern. I know the later 2 do not have Football but all would be good fits in some ways..especially travel cost!

[sider]

Id waverly join or piketon should retract and join the soc...it makes no sense too me that waverly is further away than piketon to every soc school and piketon is not in league, put them both in the same league

[shoelace]

Piketon and Waverly in same league....might be fun lol

[eagles73Taylor]

Piketon is 1 of 2 teams in the SVC that are the original founding members of the league, along with Paint Valley. The SVC was formed in 1962 with Piketon, PV, Laurelville and Logan Elm. The rest of the Ross County League followed suit and around 1970's the league was set as it is now.

The SVC is competitive in boys sports with basketball being somewhat dominated by Southeastern with 17 titles, but after that ZT, Adena, Piketon and Westfall are around 4 to 7 titles each.

Football, Westfall has I believe 13 titles, with Piketon and PV tied for 2nd with 9 each, ZT with 6 or 7 and Adena as well around that number and Unioto close behind them.

Baseball is very competitive in the SVC with Unioto, Adena and Zane Trace all having quite a few titles. Paint Valley has a state Championship as well.

I heard somewhere that Wheelersburg has won 28 boys basketball titles. I know in football as well they dominate with most of the titles. Same in baseball.

Why in the world would Piketon want back into a league just to struggle to stay in the middle of the pack with the Valleys, Waverlys, Minfords and West?

Piketon has placed 2nd in the league in football in the last 4 years. Has won the league title in basketball 3 times since 04'. The baseball team is getting better after struggling for several years.

As for the mileage, Piketon to Burg is 33 miles, to Lucasville is 14 miles, Portsmouth West 25 miles, Northwest 21 miles, Minford 23 miles, Oak Hill 36 miles and South Webster 35 miles. This average out to 26.5 miles and averages 37 minutes per route.

Piketon to Westfall 50 miles, Southeastern 24 miles, Adena 38 miles, ZT 28 miles, PV 29 miles, Huntington 16 miles, and Unioto 26 miles. This averages out to 30 miles per and 39 minutes per route.

No big difference in mileage or time! Piketon isnt going anywhere, they are a great fit in the SVC.

[rickuhrig]

The grumblings over the years are from those that feel THEY should be able to win a particular sport year in and year out, because of past success, or a shot to win the all league banner. There is always someone that has a great idea, even if it means disrupting the best case senerio for those already in the SVC. Other than what I stated above, it would be hard pressed to come up with a change to the SVC that benefits ALL members in the league now. If you add teams you add travel, period. If you add teams (some want two divisions, guess who) you may lose some of the "overall league rivalary" ( on a regular basis the SVC has good size crowds for events, not just the big games). Eight team format is perfect, this is what most leagues attempt when starting or reorganizing. I am sure there are surrounding schools that would like to join the SVC--- THATS an indicator of "what you have is good". If research is done, I would expect you would find that EVERY school in the SVC has one or more league titles in one sport or another, over the past 6-8 years ( thats not bad considering the athletic ability cycle MOST schools this size deal with). There is probably more parity over the years in the SVC than in many of the surrounding leagues. Speaking for myself; Would I like for our school to win the all league banner-YES. Am I losing any sleep over it-NO, I use common sense to realize that is not an option. I Am MUCH more interested in my program COMPETING year in and year out, which we do, AND, the other programs in our school being competitive on a consistant basis.

[4puttsnowman]

Leave it as is!

[boilermaker]

Ive always said I would like to see Wellston enter this league, but it will never happen.

[4puttsnowman]

Wellston would be a great fit in baseball. I think they would be middle of the pack in football and basketball at best.

[JohnKnight]

Westfall has 220 boys this past count, Waverly 253, 33 more boys but everyone wants to say Waverly is too big for the SVC.

[sider]

Westfall has 220 boys this past count, Waverly 253, 33 more boys but everyone wants to say Waverly is too big for the SVC.

Football wise the Svc is a great fit for waverly, enrollment doesn't always mean success...look at Northwest. In 06-07 Waverly beat D2 Jackson and D1 Pick North, but lost to smaller Westfall and D5 Wheelersburg...

[eagles73Taylor]

Baseball SVC championships. Unioto 18, Adena 13, Westfall 11, Paint Valley 7, Zane Trace 5, Piketon and Southeastern with 1.

Football SVC Championsips. Westfall 14, Paint Valley 9, Piketon 9, Adena 8, Zane Trace 6, Unioto 6, Southeastern 2.

Basketball SVC Championships. Southeastern 17, Zane Trace 8, Unioto 5, Westfall 5, Piketon 5, Adena 3, Huntington 2, Paint Valley 2.

Track and Cross Country have been recently dominated by Unioto, but Piketon was king of the track and course in the late 80's to late 90's.

Like Rick said above, Unioto dominates the all league banner. They are consistantly good in most sports, especially girls sports which helps them against smaller schools like SE, Hunt, and PV in sports like golf, cc, track etc.

Unioto has 15 banners, from 91-present all of them have been won. Adena has 13, but only has won one of them in the last 2 decades. Westfall has 5, Southeastern 4, Zane Trace and Piketon 1.

[doggone54]

What would be wrong with a 10 team conference? it makes the scheduling easy for every sport... in football you play one non-conference and go into conference play (schedule a rival week one) rotate conference schedule every two years (week 10 becomes week 2)...B-ball play once through your conference schedule instead of twice...takes away splitting wins and you have to wait to get another chance at a team the next year...playing more game outside the conference might help get the team tournement ready...same holds true for Baseball...track,and volleyball...The AD isnt looking for non-conference games as much when you make your non-conference schedule and get it established year and year out

[mikepike]

I don't think adding teams would be good for the league. Eliminating non-league games wouldn't help with computer points in football, unless each teams wins their games against strong opponents. As for basketball, if anything, I would like to see SVC teams have more non-league games, playing each SVC school once each year. Takes away from the rivalries some, but just a thought.

[Xtoxxviii]

Piketon was king of the course in the late 80's to late 90's.

Like Rick said above, Unioto dominates the all league banner..........

Not 2 B start-n- anythang but:
even Rick could put up all state times on your down hill cross country course.

Just what standard of measure was used on that lay out?
The cubit?

[eagles73Taylor]

You must have the memory of a field mouse, the current cc course has only been used as a home course for the last 5 years or so. Back in the day when the Streaks of Coach Shepherd reeled off 9 or so straight SVC CC championships the course was out by the Pike county JVS! That course was a pretty challenging course! Funny thing is, Coach Shepherd one year had his team run a warm up from the High School in town, out 23 to 32 to the JVS! His team ran to the race!

[Xtoxxviii]

There ya go interjecting facts into my fictional world………….
And here I thought you would call my bluff on Rick being able to run State qualifier time.

Coach Shepherd is one of the all-time SVC greats, in my book in his arena of coaching he is as good as: Cindy Driggs, Ronnie Lovely, Laura Smith, Larry Jordan, Dan Neff, Warren Whitaker and John Paxton.

Back to the topic- NO on expansion, my Tanks struggle enough as it is on the gridiron.

[eagles73Taylor]

The SVC hasn't changed since 1974, can any other league around here say that?

[JohnKnight]

I know you all think I am making most of this up but I have been coaching in this area since 1984 so I have a pretty good handle on the subject. There are many reasons why the SVC would be a better conference for Waverly and I have expressed this to many people for years. The SVC is better travel for Waverly. Every school is as close as our nearst opponent in the SOC except Westfall and they are very easy to get to even though it takes an hour one way. The rest of the SVC is less than 40 minutes to any of them. The SVC travels much better in basketball than the SOC, the Jr High program and all levels are run much better than the SOC which is nonexistent. All sports in the SVC would be very competetive for Waverly every year and would make all teams better. The SVC is covered by the Chillicothe paper which is the top paper in Waverly who has no daily paper or AP vote. It would be much better from a press standpoint for Waverly players, who gets little press in the Portsmouth Times other than as opponents of Scioto county teams. SVC has an All Sports Award, SOC doesn't.

So I can say as someone who would know that I as a parent would rather see my Jr high kids and girls getting home earlier on school nights. I also like games being much easier to travel to see the teams play. I would like to see home basketball games with full gyms. Waverly many times has as many or more fans at a basketball game as the SOC opponent when Waverly is the visitor, and that is why the SOC wouldn't want to lose Waverly, It would cost them.

Talk about Rivalries, Piketon is a much bigger rivalry game than any SOC teams and it would quickly become that way with any of the bordering schools like Paint Valley, Southeastern, Huntington as well as Unioto, ZT Adena and Westfall.
The other thing I like about the SVC is the upstart of wrestling. I would love to see our kids get to wrestle competitively.