Suburban League Strength?

DevilsAdvocate

New member
When I visit other gyms during hoops season I enjoy perusing the banners on the wall to see the success of the different sports for that school, got me to thinking. With the recent success of football, wrestling and with hoops on the rise what is the strength of the Suburban League. In other words what is the league best known for and how would you stack up the leagues sports. Using state titles, Regional and District appearances and state rankings as criteria. Also use individual success to determine strength of a sport. The number of All-Ohio athletes, All-District, Division I signees, number of kids that continue in college at any level or any athletes in the Pro's. You could do it for boys and girls sports, I just don't know enough about the girls programs. I think it might be interesting to see what people think league wide.

1 Wrestling-There is a strong tradition of wrestling in this league that dates back a very long time. Wadsworth has set the standard not just in the league but in the state as well with a Championship in the duals as well as the individual title. Highland has always been strong and I believe they have state title in their history. Barberton is another school with good wrestling. Copley sends individuals to state every year and even some of the lesser programs have individuals who place at state year in and year out. Many of the wrestlers go on to college at all levels, and while there isn't much available after college I didn't want to punish them for that. It's just tough to argue with tradition and success at the state level.

2 Baseball-State titles and championship appearances as well as deep tournament runs is part of the reason I think baseball is two. Also the number of athletes that play D1 and other levels after HS is pretty impressive. Add to that Sonnanstine (Wadsworth) in the majors and several others in the minors you could argue baseball as number 1. Tallmadge alone has I believe 11 guys since the Linn era who are still playing or played in college. THS has two players currently in the minors with Stephens and Testa.

3 Football-Basketball - I think these two are on about the same track. Year in and year out we have good representation when it comes to the early rounds of the playoffs but recently no championship appearances. Delone Carter helps the stock when you look at football players at the next level and the high school success but this year only one D1 signee in football league wide and probably only one in basketball indicates that the league while on the rise is still not there yet.

4 T&F/Cross Country- Must admit I don't know a lot about these programs but it seems year in and year out they send a pretty impressive group of individuals to the state meet. I know Green boasts an Olympian in their history in Mark Croghan.

5 Golf-Another sport that I don't know enough history about, it may deserve a higher ranking.

6 Soccer-No offense but I don't think the Suburban league is known for it's soccer.
 
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Tallmadge Softball has a lot of League and State Banners hanging in their Gym.

Most State Tournament Appearances
1. 14 Tallmadge (2009, 99, 98, 97, 95, 93, 90, 89, 88, 87, 85, 83, 82, 81)

Most State Championships
1. 9 Akron Springfield (2005, 1995, 94, 93, 92, 90, 89, 88, 78)
2. 7 Tallmadge (1998, 97, 93, 89, 88, 87, 81)
3. 6 Jeromesville Hillsdale (2010, 2000, 1999, 96, 94, 79)


http://www.ohsaa.org/sports/records/sbrecrd.htm#MSC
 
I believe that there are seven Suburban League wrestlers going for a D1 state title this evening.
 
I won't claim to know much if anything about soccer, however, Revere did lose the state championship in 2010 and Copley is normally pretty good.
 
I would probably put football a little higher than basketball. The success of football teams making runs in the playoffs is better than the basketball teams. I don't believe we've had any final 4 basketball teams in the last 10 years while we've had 3 in football and we've only had one "elite 8" team in basketball while football has had 8 teams in that same timeframe.
 
Way off on soccer.

On the boys side...
Highland finished the season ranked #6 in D-2, Revere finished ranked #7. Revere went on to lose in the state finals (revenging a regular season loss to Highland on the way). Revere has been a power for awhile, almost always state ranked. Highland has been top 10 each of the last 4 seasons, with multiple wins over other state ranked teams during that time. Copley has been state ranked multiple times the past couple of years, and was #1 in the 03-05 range... Wadsworth has been ranked at least once in the past couple of seasons...

Highland
2010 14-3-1 (District Semis loss to state runner-up Revere)
2009 13-3-2 (District Semis loss to Revere)
2008 15-4 (District Final loss to SVSM)
2007 17-3 (Regional Semis loss to Bay)

Revere
2010 20-3 (State Final loss to Dayton Carroll
2009 14-3-3 (Regional Semis loss to state runner-up Bay)
2008 9-4-5 (District Final loss to Bay)
2007 12-5-2 (District Final loss to Bay)

(Before going any further, seeding in soccer is kinda weird. The 2nd seed gets to pick what side of the bracket they want to play on... Because beating the #1 seed means you get home field in the district finals, you will often see #1 vs. #2 in the district semis... Hence the Revere vs. Highland matchups in the semis...) Figured I'd point that out since it makes it seem like they weren't the 1-2 seeds, when they in fact were...

Copley
2010 8-9-2
2009 10-3-4
2008 11-5-2
2007 8-5-3
2006 12-5-2
2005 14-2-3

Wadsworth
http://www.grizzlysoccer.com/history.htm

Looking at Barberton and Tallmadge did OOC only further makes the case..
Barberton only went 2-4-1 in league, but went 9-1 out of conference this year, nearly scoring a huge upset over Hudson in districts...
I couldn't tell you the last time Tallmadge was any good in the league (0-7), but even they whooped on some teams OOC, managing 6 wins and a tie.

Simply put, the SL is known as one of the top boys soccer leagues in the state. Quite a few regional appearances and wins over top programs in the state to back it up.
 
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The 'Leaf's gymnastic program is awesome too! Multiple and consective league titles and state placers. Also, the Dunbar boys have sure made a name for themselves in tennis.
 
The SL was again dominant in boys soccer. Revere was #1 in the state in D-2 the majority of the year before being upset in districts. Copley and Highland were top programs in D-1.

I really though Revere would win the state title this year. SL has been very unlucky.
 
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