dragonsfan24 wrote:Well then they havent done it yet.
Sidebar: I think it would be awesome to add Gallipolis and Ironton. It takes us to 8 schools which limits OOC scheduling for football, but they may talk about splitting it up based on enrollment/division or geography so you can still schedule up to 4-5 OOC games by playing everyone in your division and then rotating who you play in the other.
If you add Gallia and Ironton to the league and make it two divisions using either total school enrollment or OHSAA boys enrollment for football you get the same divisions that I think no one will like.
Bigger Schools
Gallia Academy
Rock Hill
Fairland
South Point
Small Schools
Coal Grove
Ironton
Chesapeake
Portsmouth
But this is just for football, if Ironton and Gallia both get in then only football should have divisions, don't see a reason for any other sports.
Just my opinion, but it doesn't make sense to add Ironton if they don't have someone to come along. Gallia would have been great, but I don't see a good situation with 7 teams.
That leaves schools with league byes in football and teams looking for Friday games in basketball. That just doesn't seem like a very good idea.
Crab's brother wrote:Just my opinion, but it doesn't make sense to add Ironton if they don't have someone to come along. Gallia would have been great, but I don't see a good situation with 7 teams.
That leaves schools with league byes in football and teams looking for Friday games in basketball. That just doesn't seem like a very good idea.
good point Crab and I am sure the OVC is looking into that problem.......in fact I am positive that issue is under consideration..
I think it is an issue for the SOC going into next season. With Northwest leaving the league, I know that Valley has had to do some real juggling to move South Point to week 8 and then changing the pre-league slate.
Crab's brother wrote:Just my opinion, but it doesn't make sense to add Ironton if they don't have someone to come along. Gallia would have been great, but I don't see a good situation with 7 teams.
That leaves schools with league byes in football and teams looking for Friday games in basketball. That just doesn't seem like a very good idea.
Story that will be in the Ironton Tribune today states that next week the conference will consider Ironton and look at Raceland as possible expansion as well.
Postby You're Tiger Bait » Fri Oct 11, 2013 9:06 am
trojandave wrote:I will miss the competition that the SEOAL provided........but for my Portsmouth Trojans, the OVC is in the long term a better option. Our enrollment has been under 200 boys for the last half of a decade, and probably won't get any significant gains in the near future. It is tough to compete with our numbers on a consistent basis, although I am very proud to see the Trojans win SEOAL titles in boys basketball, boys and girls tennis. Portsmouth will compete well in the OVC because the enrollments of the member schools are fairly similar.
What was once thought as a great idea to bring Zanesville, Ironton, Chillicothe, and Portsmouth into the SEOAL came back to haunt the league, and could very well have led to Athens and Marietta leaving as well.......and I think that travel, rather than the increased level of competition, was the reason for the demise. Travel is such a big issue in today's high school athletics, not just in SE Ohio, but around the state. Look at the state's largest conference, the OCC......there's not much travel in any direction for any of the members. More travel incurs more cost, and being cost efficient is critical to the survival of HS sports.......and when you don't win very much, fans don't come, and money doesn't come through the turnstiles as a result.
I hope the SEOAL stays together, and I think it can, but it will take some creative thinking on the part of SEOAL school administrators. Best wishes to the SEOAL!!
GO TROJANS!!
WELL SAID DAVE. ------------i can't believe that people still don't actually see that the seoal is not a good fit for teams like ironton and Portsmouth these days. i loved it in the 70's as a young'un traveling there on the greyhound. but i wasn't paying for the fuel. and at that age never knew anything about the other sports traveling halfway across the state on school nights, then getting home at 1 or 2 am, before school starts the next day.just as the landscape is changing in college football, i see more of it for ohio high school football. it only makes good sense. i have no trouble like ironton going to Columbus saint Charles tonight to play them, because it is a Friday game. but as dave said , about the enrollment it is what it is, ironton has 162 boys , they almost fell from d4 to d6, only missing it by 6 boys. st. Charles was d1 last year before the change, they are now a huge d2 school, and all male. we cannot compete against that.we used to , but not at the present time, just too many horse on these teams. i look for this game to be very ugly tonight, after getting drilled by a huge Johnson central ky. team last week, a trip to saint Charles tonight, and next week a trip back to Columbus to play bishop Hartley next week. we may not have enough healthy kids left to play the last 2 games, i mean that literally. it looks like a mash unit on the sidelines now. i never thought i'd see the day that Chesapeake wheelersburg, and piketon were bigger schools enrollment wise than ironton, but it is reality now.st. Charles smashed Columbus desales last week like 36-0. i remember the days of constantly every year the fighting tigers playing desales very competitive, and sometimes winning. generally the fighting tigers were leading, and desales would come from behind and win, they just had too many fresh horses, when a team has 100 athletes on the field, and jv's not dressing, and you have 35/38 kids. it doesn't add up. sometimes desales would bring in 11 fresh bodies at a time, all the same size, huge.and tonight we play an all male d2 school that thumped them. it will not be pretty. but that was a different era. i fear i'll see ironton in the ovcin the very near future but the majority of the school's in the ovc now have a larger enrollment than ironton. i'd love to see ironton in the soc , but don't think that will happen. and ironton is struggling to get a full schedule now as an independent, as a result of their past success with teams like this. but that may be years away competing with these schools again, if ever. we may have to bite the bullet and downsize. but i promise you one thing, if ironton leagues up, their non conference schedule will still look like nobody else's for a school their size. because that has worked for so many decades. ----but things, and times , they are a changing. YTB
i like the idea of raceland as an addition as well. ironton actually plays them and oak hill the last 2 games, and these schools are all virtually the same size now. who'd have thunk it.
Are Kentucky teams allowed to affiliate with out-of-state leagues?? I know WVSSAC doesn't have anything against it, but I was wondering if KHSAA did because of how playoffs worked in KY.
If we can add KY teams, I think Raceland or Russell would be a great add.
I agree that some of the KY schools would be a good addition. The obstacle is that the KYHSAA has a mandatory scheduling grid requiring schools to play other district schools the second half of the season (sometimes sooner depending on the number of teams). Some get a week off if their respective district has an odd number of teams. According to their website, this model is in place at least through 2014. If things were to change it may give reason to discuss bringing in some of the KY teams.
Crab's brother wrote:Just my opinion, but it doesn't make sense to add Ironton if they don't have someone to come along. Gallia would have been great, but I don't see a good situation with 7 teams.
That leaves schools with league byes in football and teams looking for Friday games in basketball. That just doesn't seem like a very good idea.
Story that will be in the Ironton Tribune today states that next week the conference will consider Ironton and look at Raceland as possible expansion as well.
I agree with crabs brother a 8th team is a must ironton would fit into this new ovc very well. I would hope oak hill or raceland is the 8th team.
Options are plenty really if teams wait to join till 2015 like Portsmouth is doing Ironton would be a great fit would love to see a KY team join but the way Ky districts are not feasible sad to say.
Gallia may choose to wait to see what the future holds but Jackson my be the wild card in this.
If what everyone said in the past about Jackson looking at join the SOC numerous times who is to say the OVC looks just as good now if Ironton gets a invite along with Portsmouth.
Just food for thought.
