Following many months of rumors and speculation, the Northern Lakes League expanded, voting unanimously to invite Clay, Findlay, Fremont Ross and Whitmer.
The move likely spells the end of the Three Rivers Athletic Conference which first began play in August 2011. Meanwhile, the additions help secure the future for the NLL following a 5-0 vote from the Maumee school board to leave the league and join the Northern Buckeye Conference in 2022-23.
The shakeup gives the NLL 11 teams–the above four plus Anthony Wayne, Bowling Green, Napoleon, Northview, Perrysburg, Southview and Springfield–and makes the conference the second largest in terms of area football schools behind only the three-division Sandusky Bay Conference. It also becomes the largest in northwest Ohio for overall student enrollment.
That such a realignment would come to fruition is hardly a surprise given the changing population landscape across northwest Ohio. Those realities were apparent to NLL leaders about the time it became clear that Perrysburg would cement itself as the conference’s only Division I football school. Formal talks, however, happened much more recently.
“The conversations really started with the athletic directors and principals probably back in December, just before Christmas break. I remember having some Zoom [conferences] then,” explained Yellow Jackets Athletic Director Chuck Jaco, one of several integral members from across the NLL in the formal expansion process.
“It was something that we visited probably two or three years ago. There’s a lot of rumors circulating around the area with the NBC and Northwest Ohio Athletic League, so we thought, as a league, should we get ahead of this and be proactive versus reactive? We put our feelers out and the first time the process got formalized was back in January when we put together an expansion committee.”
That committee was comprised of superintendents, athletic directors and principals from all the member schools. Around that time, word began leaking out of the NLL’s intention to expand the conference. But Jaco insisted that, despite what may have seemed like a fast-moving process, the league was a long way from making any major decisions early in the calendar year.
“The formal applications really didn’t go out until mid-March,” he said. “So, January, February and March were Zoom meetings where we were crafting a vision, what do we want to become, do we want to go to two divisions of eight, one division of 10, how many schools do we want to bring in, and so on and so forth. When you get eight different people on these Zooms and you get into each school’s opinions, it took a while to get on the same page.
“But we created a formal application process, a rubric, things of that nature and by mid-March we were fully ready to put out that the NLL was looking for an expansion opportunity and we finalized that out.”
The only hiccup in the process came when Maumee elected to depart for the NBC.
“Once they were board-approved for the NBC, our league commissioner and the superintendents and principals basically at that point felt that it didn’t make any sense for them to be making decisions about a league that they would no longer be part of,” said Jaco. “So, they were excused from the process at that point.”
Though he was not a part of the last conference realignment when Napoleon was welcomed in to replace Rossford, other committee members were and wanted to model the process similarly. Jaco noted that even then there was quite a bit to be reviewed to determine eligibility for potential new members.
Despite looking to add not one but several schools, the committee made every effort to mirror the process.
“We talked about consistency with what Napoleon had to do with their presentation,” Jaco explained. “So, we had a foundation of what that looked like previously, and we used that and bounced off our application. It was a very similar process probably to what Napoleon had to go through. I know their principal mentioned anything from enrollment numbers, your facilities, your facility capacity, your home attendance average, how many sports do you offer, what division and what levels, like do you have a JV and freshman soccer team? That presentation included all of those facets and academic information.
“All that stuff was pretty similar to what Napoleon had to go through.”
Given the new odd number of 11–no high school conference is seeking to be one short of having enough for two divisions–Jaco confirmed that these additions are not the end all, be all for the new NLL.
He would not speculate on who might next be targeted for admission, but it’s clear there are more puzzle pieces to assemble.
“I assured everybody, notably my coaches, that this is phase one,” he said. “I still think we have a step to get to where we have two divisions of six and, ultimately, I think the home down the road is two divisions of eight. I don’t know if we get to two divisions of eight prior to this new league [officially] forming, but we still have 26 months before the first action, the first tip-off and all of that stuff. Between now and then I think we can get to two divisions of six which is the hope.
“We are going to actively pursue a school that fits our vision. We probably need a ‘small school’, and I kind of put that in quotes because I don’t know how you define what that means. Probably a low-end Division II or big Division III because that would fit perfect right now with what we have to make us two divisions of six. I think now because we are back to the two-division model, maybe that will be more attractive so that when some of these other dominoes start falling and some of these other leagues that we’re hearing [continue] in the process of making adjustments.
“It’s not rocket science that you don’t want to have an 11-team league. Whether it’s one division or two, 11 doesn’t work. So, obviously, there will be some opportunities for other schools to join the league.”
At least one potential school has already been informed that it will not be a part of the NLL’s future. Central Catholic applied for membership along with their fellow TRAC schools but was not extended an invitation.
“We are not aware of the criteria for selection into the NLL, but all areas identified in the application process were submitted to their review committee,” said CCHS Head of School Kevin Parkins in a prepared statement. “With an emphasis on inclusion throughout our society, we know the value that a faith-centered school can provide a league.”
“We have bylaws in place and you have to have a majority vote when we come to these types of decisions, and they quite simply did not get that,” said Jaco. “That’s what it came down to. I can’t speak for other schools because at the end of the day we all voted for our own private reasons. But we have this committee about expansion and what was best for the NLL, and I think ultimately that’s what we ended up coming up with. Any school that didn’t get the invite per the bylaws of the NLL just quite simply didn’t get the necessary four votes and that’s what it boils down to.”
One of the primary advantages going forward is that members can rest easy in knowing that the league has created unprecedented stability for many years to come through these additions. Once they can finalize a 12th member, the two divisions will provide the NLL with ample means with which to keep all members in a good position across every sport.
“The benefit of a two-division league is that every two to three years, you assess enrollment numbers, see how schools are fluctuating and if a school becomes larger, they just move into the other division,” said Jaco. “Or in some other conferences, they look at the competitive balance of each sport and then you adjust so that you don’t have teams looking to get out of the league because of imbalance of enrollment or imbalance of competitiveness. Within your own conference, you have the flexibility to fluctuate where you move to.
“That’s kind of relieving especially for the small schools and the mid-sized schools because somebody’s always going to be the biggest small school or the smallest big school. But it’s not permanent. That’s the beauty of this two-division format is you’re constantly assessing where we’re at and you’re shuffling schools around within your own conference versus the threat of ‘we’re going to leave because we just can’t compete or our numbers are too small and we’re land-locked.’ I’m excited about it.”
Arguably the biggest benefit comes in what the new members have to offer across virtually all sports. There are some sports that far outperform others at each high school, but combined they will enhance and grow the competition within the NLL.
“Ultimately, it’s the increase in competition across the board that I keep thinking about. We’re already one of the best baseball and softball [leagues] in the state and now you throw in Whitmer and Clay and Findlay?” Jaco opined. “Think about wrestling and adding Clay to our powerhouse. And football’s the no-brainer, right? It’s just insane when you’re thinking about it. It’s not just the Anthony Wayne and Perrysburg show. We’re going to Findlay and Whitmer. This has to be becoming one of the top, or at least on par, with some of the top scholastic leagues in the state.”
Though the bigger sports may get the lion’s share of the attention, benefits extend much deeper, particularly for girls sports. That was something about which Jaco is very enthusiastic.
“I looked at it more from the girls side and, my goodness, the fact that we’re going to have more girls sports offered at the ninth grade and JV levels is amazing,” he said. “I now have peace of mind knowing that we’re hopefully going to have more girls sports offered at all levels.
“We’re adding more bowling teams to the league, we’re adding more lacrosse teams to the league with Findlay and Clay so that’s going to help that sport grow. My point is that across the board, we’re going to fill our schedule, we’re going to give our girls sports more opportunities in the league and I think the two-division alignment will create some excitement for our teams.”
Turning expansion into a reality and creating all the positive vibes that come along with it can be attributed to the long and stalwart working relationships make the league distinctive, according to Jaco. He also believes they will continue to spell out a bright future for what’s become the premier interscholastic athletic conference in northwest Ohio.
“Ultimately, even though the schools all voted based on what was best for them, our vision was what was best for the Northern Lakes League,” he said. “That’s what makes this league very, very unique. We all, despite wanting to hang banners, at the end of the day we all get along, we all have respect for each other’s programs and you don’t want to lose those types of people. We have great working relationships and we want to preserve that for as long as you can.”
“It was the ultimate compromise. Every AD, principal and superintendent when that meeting came out was happy. That’s hard to pull off with seven schools of different sizes with different personalities. To have all of us say this is a pretty cool outcome, that’s going to be great for each of us. But at the end of the day, it’s not over with.”
Springfield School officials would not comment on the expansion.
