Northwest Ohio Realignment

Wapakoneta 7th grade 278. OG 7th grade 89. Goes to show the athletes and coaching they have to compete with schools that much bigger.
 
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.
There was a time in the early 90s that speculation around Lima land was Elida would surpass Lima Senior in enrollment by the end of the decade. Never happened and unfortunately Elida's enrollment much like the rest of the county / region has been plummeting for a good minute now.

As a high school student 22 years ago I thought my family of 4 was the odd family because it was just my sister and I. Most of my friends / classmates came from families of 5 or more. Now as a teacher I find it surprising when it's the opposite. Rare is it I have a student these days who has multiple siblings.
 
Many years ago I met the superintendent and principal from O-G. They said they had three non-Catholic families in the schools.

I can assure you that since the mid-70's at least....there has always been more than 3 lol. Yes, it used to be even more Catholic than it is now but never to that extreme. When I was in HS there..... (quite a few years ago) my class was probably 90%+ Catholic.....I'm guessing now that it's closer to 75%
 
Many years ago I met the superintendent and principal from O-G. They said they had three non-Catholic families in the schools.
Maybe at Glandorf, which still operates separately for K-8, but not O-G. The massive majority of Glandorf is still catholic families. Ottawa still probably has a catholic majority, but not even close to the percentage of Glandorf or some of the other towns in Putnam County
 
I'd be willing to bet there's a decent Lutheran population in Continental, Miller City, and Leipsic as well. Defiance and Henry County are kinda the Lutheran hotbed of the area, and I'd imagine a few filtered south.

But otherwise it's definitely a large Catholic majority.
 
Here’s an outside the box idea. Lima Sr. is looking for a conference, Trotwood Madison is looking for a conference, Middletown (one of Lima Sr.’s biggest rivals over the years) is struggling in the GMC, Marion Harding is a large school in a conference with smaller schools. Maybe these schools consider hooking up (maybe throw Springfield in there if they are inclined to leave the GWOC), and you have similar sized schools in a nice league setup. Travel may be a bit, but Lima will have to travel no matter where they go.
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!
 
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!

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.
 
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.
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?
 
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.

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.
 
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?
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.
 
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 Senior could solve their athletic problems if they divided into two schools (Lima South and Lima North?). I doubt that would work for non-athletic reasons.
 
Lima Senior could solve their athletic problems if they divided into two schools (Lima South and Lima North?). I doubt that would work for non-athletic reasons.
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.
 
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.
 
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.
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.
 
Lima Senior could solve their athletic problems if they divided into two schools (Lima South and Lima North?). I doubt that would work for non-athletic reasons.
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.
 
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.
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.
 
Lima Senior could solve their athletic problems if they divided into two schools (Lima South and Lima North?). I doubt that would work for non-athletic reasons.
Having two high schools without a conference wouldn't solve any of their problems.
 
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.

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
 
Let’s say the BVC did get rid of a couple small schools and brought in Fostoria and Kenton. What school does everyone think would be a good replacement in the WBL if that happened?
 
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
 
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