Curious One
Active member
What is the appeal of Lima in any of these leagues? Think about non-revenue sports and school night travel. Any Superintendent with any brains would veto them!
Northwest Ohio Realignment
- Thread starter ghsknightsfan
- Start date
Yeah...Lima to Middletown sounds like a nightmare for an AD, especially with the bussing issues that every district seems to be having nowadays.
It really is a shame that the WBL is so against Lima Senior, that would obviously be the best situation for them.
smurfyeah19
Well-known member
Could make the same argument about the issues in Toledo with the Catholic schools. Everything that Central is in Football, Lima Senior is in basketball. It's a clear AAU recruited team that has became one of the best programs in the state. Why the heck would the WBL want to deal with that?
Lima did the Middletown (and further) trip for years. Actually Lima and Middletown developed a nice rivalry in those years.
For Lima, I'd see the appeal. For Middletown, the travel would be a nightmare.
I worked in Lima and Wapak in the early to middle 80's and recall Lima Senior beating a good Wapak football team, putting up 65 points and I don't remember if Wapak scored. Folks in Wapak weren't impressed. Lima will run up the score in basketball on Bath, Shawnee, and Elida and not think twice. What league are they in? Point is, Lima Senior has done nothing to endear themselves to WBL schools.
Legacy
Active member
This is not a bad statement. I wonder if the BVC would go after Kenton with CR and NB leaving?
I don't think anyone in the WBL would be sad to see Kenton go, but leaving the WBL for the BVC is a bit of a joke, right? Saying that Kenton is shrinking out of the WBL, which isn't really true, but then theorizing them as the largest school in an unstable and weak BVC? Yikes. Good luck with that.
Lima City Schools will never split their high schools again. The current HS was built in 2004. Plus a a DII in football, they aren’t bursting at the seams enrollment-wise.
Talking about a school like Lima Sr. on realignment thread will get a lot of feedback and opinions. Enrollment-wise, they are kind of on an island geographically with most area schools being DIII and smaller. With the exception of boys basketball, they don’t bring a lot to the table. As for the WBL, I personally see it as somewhat of a love/hate relationship (maybe like Massillon and the Federal League). There are probably some politics/past burnt bridges that would prevent the WBL from bringing in Lima Sr. Also, the WBL has been an extremely stable league for the last 35-40 years. Seeing these other schools continuously moving around to find new leagues seems to be be something the WBL schools pride themselves on not having to deal with. Keep in mind Lima Central Catholic has struggled with conference affiliation for many years and has played as an independent for long periods of time, so this issue isn’t exclusive to Lima Sr. in the Lima area.
Not sure that the WBL would be completely against Lima Senior.....several WBL schools play them in quite a few sports as it is, though nobody plays them in football....and really only OG, Shawnee and Elida play them very often in basketball. Biggest problem I see is that the WBL is at 10 schools. They play everyone in football....and have week 1 open for some traditional "rivalry" games. Adding an 11th would make that impossible.....and I don't see teams like Defiance being willing to give up their season opener with long time rival Napoleon.
CC Track Fan
Well-known member
In a few years LB will be bigger than Kenton but I agree Kenton is not going to the BVC unless the BVC completely reworks it self and gets rid of all the small schools and adds schools like Fostoria.
Solution: The WBL takes LCC and Sr, 12 league members. Play 8 football conference games a year, the top 4 from the previous year don't play the bottom 4 from the previous years standing, so that the weaker teams can stop getting crushed. The only sport that Lima Sr has that is scary ins basketball, which several WBL school voluntary play them in.
FremontKeith
Well-known member
Interestingly enough, Lima Senior was created by the merger of Lima Central and Lima South back in the 1950's. The very first football game the Spartans ever played was week one of the 1955 season, and it was against our Little Giants.
Lima is too small for two high schools at this point.
*67
Well-known member
Wow. You're definitely the first person to ever think of that.
It isn't going to happen. Lima Senior will never be a member of the Western Buckeye League. Come up with any solution you'd like. It ain't happening.
*67
Well-known member
Having two high schools without a conference wouldn't solve any of their problems.
That's not happening. St Marys and Celina are never going to give up playing each other....no matter the records. Same with St Marys & Wapak if that situation ever came up. Same with Elida and Bath, Shawnee and Bath, Elida and Shawnee, etc
Napoleon would be a good fit. I'd be fine with LCC....as it's more centrally located than Napoleon and most of the WBL teams play them in basketball already. Lima Senior has been mentioned in this discussion....but I just don't see that happening. LB would make sense too, but I think they are happy being the big fish in a small pond and probably wouldn't make the move
Based on current ODE enrollment information for both school districts, Kenton is still projected to be larger than Liberty-Benton when today's elementary students are in high school so I think it may be more than just a few years. But agreed, Kenton to the BVC is a pipedream unless the BVC fundamentally changes from what the BVC actually is today.
Honestly, if Kenton was going to consider changing leagues, they would probably look at leagues like the Northern 10, Mid Ohio Athletic Conference, or Central Buckeye Conference Mad River Division.
I've said this before, but I genuinely don't think there will be a change in membership to the Western Buckeye League at the present moment. Even with seismic changes to Toledo metro area leagues this summer, Defiance still chose to remain members of the WBL. And Kenton has been a member of the WBL since the 1940's. I just don't see it happening to the dismay of this 118-page conference realignment discussion topic.
Solve their athletic problems by doubling them?
No one would busting down Lima North or Lima South's doors either. They wouldn't magically be WBL or NWC candidates. You'd just have 2 schools no one wants.
Yeah, absolutely not. No way in hell I'm trading Napoleon for Lima Senior. One is our top gate of the year and brings the city together. The other would bring 12 fans.
Yeah, I think unless something that actually had a shot to be stable and included the big 4 in our corner of the state came along, we're happy in the WBL. And considering Bryan and Wauseon are the Liberty-Benton of the NW corner, and we'd struggle to find anyone past those 4 anyway, it's not happening. If it was possible, it would have happened 50 years ago when all the shuffling first started.
As long as the WBL will have us, I think Defiance has made it obvious we're a loyal and happy member.
You know he's going to need to "write" his own article, start another thread and just post a link to his website.
*67
Well-known member
I wish I didn't have to write this on damn near every page on this thread.
If Kenton were to leave the WBL, Defiance would wisely accept an invitation to the NLL, and the WBL would become an 8-team league. There would be no replacement.
FremontKeith
Well-known member
It's funny because it's true.