Northwest Ohio Realignment
- Thread starter ghsknightsfan
- Start date
Is their enrollment getting bigger at the lower levels?
CC Track Fan
Well-known member
I think Bath or Kenton shrinking out of the WBL is greater than them going big/small divisions. Neither is at all likely in the short term.
StateChampion2012
MAC Homer
Bath I still think would do well in the NWC.
If one of these schools did move out of the WBL, I could see Napoleon jumping ship from the NLL to get in the WBL with Defiance. Again, probably not anything in the near future, but never say never.
Agree, but just pointing out they're closer to that size than joining an exclusively D6/7 league. At least the BVC has a couple schools close to them.
Those schools need to be somewhere. They will not disband and go into a dozen different leagues. The SBC may need to reorganize the top two divisions, but the league will still be there for a long time.
Kenton is bigger than OG though. Then again OG is competitive in almost everything and fits well, where Bath and Kenton have a couple good sports and struggle otherwise.
My ultimate WBL as a Defiance fan, if we ever went divisions, is add Napoleon, Bryan, Wauseon, and maybe LB and go north/south. 7 in each, yearly crossover on bye weeks in Division. But I also love the 10 team round robin.
BirdDog10
Well-known member
*67
Well-known member
I have said it in this thread, and it still rings true. I will pound the table until people listen.
If the WBL is ever down to 9 teams, whether it's Kenton or Defiance who has left, the other school will be politely asked to leave, and the WBL will be an 8-team conference. There is no scenario where Napoleon, Liberty-Benton, LCC, Lima Senior, Fostoria, or any other school will be added.
I’m thinking most of the current schools like the 10 team round robin given the stability of the membership. If they ever do expand/replace with more northern schools, I could see a North-South setup where they play division opponents annually and rotate crossover opponents to cut down on travel. I think the biggest question mark with the WBL is will any current schools make a move. Bath and Kenton were named prior, but I’m sure there is some hesitancy there given the history and stability of the league.
smurfyeah19
Well-known member
Could have the BVC castoffs join the River Division and we can call it the Very Small Enrollments League
StateChampion2012
MAC Homer
Why don't the river just break away from the SBC?
Cedar_Point
Well-known member
New format they are using is they changing divisions every year based on enrollment. So the biggest school in the River next year (Lakota I think) could possibly be in the Bay in ‘23 if they become larger than the smallest Bay school
Bath's enrollment is just fine. They're the smallest in the WBL right now for football, but if you look at the ODE enrollment information the current class sizes in elementary are notably bigger than O-G, and bigger or on par with Van Wert and Kenton. Bath even has more 3rd and 4th graders than St Marys does. Bath's middle school class sizes are also bigger than their current high school class. So, yeah, Bath isn't shrinking out of the WBL. Enrollment has peaks and valleys and as a whole it's not like Bath is shrinking while the majority of WBL schools are having a population boom. This isn't Hilliard or Olentangy. I think the WBL will continue to be a D3-D5 league (in football at least) for a while.
Johnson&Johnson
Active member
That's inaccurate. Lakota will never be a Bay school. It's been determined by the conference because regardless of their size, it makes zero sense. Willard is bigger than them and would be the floater school. They're in River for football starting in 2023.
CC Track Fan
Well-known member
Kenton total was bigger 3 years ago (by 18 when 5 years ago it was 58) wonder what it is now and more importantly 5 or 10 years down the road. It just seems Kenton is shrinking faster than OG.
As you pointed out from a competitive standpoint OG does much more with same number of students.
OG 203, Kenton 195, Bath 185....boys in top 3 grades according to OHSAA site
smurfyeah19
Well-known member
Williard and Margaretta play down in the SBC River. Same reason we saw the SLL dissipate awhile back, the smaller schools began getting absolutely pounded regularly in football
Just did a quick search and class sizes at LB range from 133 to 97, not sure what that means as far as jumping to D4, a lot would probably depend on the number of open enrollment kids they get and large the families are moving into the new sub divisions being built near Hilcrest
CC Track Fan
Well-known member
Thanks yes that is the boys count from 3 years ago, my numbers were the combined boys and girls numbers.
Not to worry, the LB "people" will make sure and tell new people who move into Findlay how much better LB is than Findlay.
Oh damn, missed that. Must be competitive balance keeping Kenton in D4 then.
eastisbest
Well-known member
"BGSU" I thought everyone kind of looked the same.
scbuckeye99
Well-known member
For those interested in crunching numbers. From the ODE website last month.
eastisbest
Well-known member
CC Track Fan
Well-known member
Here are the total. I believe OG gets quite a few kids from a Catholic school starting in 9th grade. Any other school get additional kids from private school in HS?
Defiance gets some from both the Catholic (grade 7 I believe) and Lutheran (grade 9) schools in town, but you're talking MAYBE 15-20 kids total. Not just boys, kids. Not sure how either school still operates tbh.
It's crazy to look at these numbers now. 1471 over 8 grades....I hear my mom talk about the early 80s when they had close to that just 9-12. 184 average grade....I graduated 15 years ago with a class of 188, and that was considered a small class. Considering the city is slightly growing, either Tinora and/or Ayersville are taking quite a few kids, or the trend isn't just smaller families, it's real small families.