Northern Lakes League Releases Divisional Alignments
Volume 1 Issue 19
The speculation is over. The Northern Lakes League has finally announced their plans for the realignment of the soon-to-be 11 team league. Starting next school year, the NLL will feature two different divisions. The “Buckeye” division, which will feature the bigger schools, and the “Cardinal” division, which will feature the smaller schools. The league will also have a seperate set up for football. Due to football schedules being made many years in advance, the NLL used older enrollment data to determine divisions. Below are the divisions with enrollment listed in paranthesis:
For all sports except football
Buckeye Division
Whitmer (1,620)
Perrysburg (1,278)
Findlay (1,193)
Anthony Wayne (1,063)
Sylvania Northview (983)
Cardinal Division
Oregon Clay (846)
Springfield (834)
Sylvania Southview (814)
Fremont Ross (800)
Bowling Green (674)
Napoleon (436)
The only difference for the football alignment is that Springfield will be moved up to the Buckeye Division. There not yet been has been word on whether there will be forced cross-over games in any sports. Nor has there been word on whether sports like swimming, wrestling, track & field or golf will have seperate championship sites. Hockey is almost certainly likely to remain in the Northwest Hockey Conference and not be sponsored by the NLL.
The biggest winners in this reealignment are certainly the schools moving over from the TRAC. Fremont Ross and Oregon Clay have long been outmatched by private schools and public schools with much higher enrollment. Whitmer and Findlay will now no longer have to go through the Toledo private schools as well, which will help immensley in their quest for championships. Also winners in this realignment are Bowling Green and Napoleon. Both will no longer have to go through the likes of Perrysburg and Anthony Wayne in order to win a league title. Both schools are immensly smaller than their opponents in the current set up and will no longer have to compete with schools double and triple their size.
This realignment also brings back former foes that will be conference rivals once again. Whitmer and Sylvania Northview will be in the same league again for the first time since 1996 when they were in the Great Lakes League. Oregon Clay will be in the same conference as Bowling Green for the first time since 1978 and Napoleon in 2003 when they were a part of the Great Lakes League as well. Fremont Ross will reunite with Napoleon after their tenure in the Greater Buckeye Conference from 2003-11.
What does this mean for the future? It is not impossible to have a conference with 11 teams but it sure is more difficult than having 10 or 12 teams. As it stands right now, there are only two schools even near the size of Napoleon and that’s Maumee and Rossford. Neither of which are going to leave the Northern Buckeye Conference. Is there somewhere Napoleon could go? At the moment no. It is also unlikely they will leave now that they do not have to compete with the likes of Perrysburg and Anthony Wayne anymore. It looks like this conference will be pretty stable for the time being. Time will tell how well the new Northern Lakes League will pan out.
Leading Updates
Chris Bassitt (Curtice/Genoa) will decline his option with the New York Mets and become a free agent.
Notable Game Updates
On November 6th Zavier Simpson (Lima/Lima Senior) had 19 points, 9 rebounds and 13 assists for a Lakeland Magic win over the Birmingham Squadron.
On November 6th Trevor Harris (Waldo/Marion Pleasant) had 243 passing yards with one touchdown in a first round win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
On November 7th Grace VanSlooten (Toledo/Notre Dame) had 20 points in her college debut for Oregon.
On November 7th Tahj Staveskie (Sandusky) had 19 points in a Canisius loss to Youngstown State
On November 7th Cli’Ron Hornbeak (Toledo/St.Francis) had 6 points and 13 rebounds in a Kent State win over Northern Kentucky.
On November 7th Ivy Wolf (Minster) had 17 points, 6 steals and 5 rebounds in a Miami OH loss to Xavier.
On November 9th Dallas Gant (Toledo/Toledo Central Catholic) had 10 tackles in a Toledo win over Ball State.
On November 11th Zia Cooke (Toledo/Rogers) had 18 points for South Carolina in a win over #17 Maryland.
On November 11th Da’Sean Nelson (Toledo/Rogers) had 15 points and 7 rebounds in a DePaul win over Western Illinois.
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