Ohio Northwest Region defunct athletic conferences

This is a list of former high school athletic conferences in the Northwest Region of Ohio, as designated by the OHSAA. If a conference had members that span multiple regions, the conference is placed in the article of the region most of its former members hail from. Because the names of localities and their corresponding high schools do not always match and because there is often a possibility of ambiguity with respect to either the name of a locality or the name of a high school, the following table gives both in every case, with the locality name first, in plain type, and the high school name second in boldface type. The school's team nickname is given last.

Big Five League

(1929/30-1930/31)

Black Fork Valley Conference

The all-time members of the Black Fork Valley Conference. (1979–1982) Charter Members

Buckeye League/Conference

The league was created when Columbian, Fremont Ross, and Sandusky left the Little Big 7 league to join with Bowling Green, Findlay, and Fostoria. When Bowling Green and Fostoria left for the Great Northern League (and Tiffin went to the NOL), the league added two schools from the Lake Erie League and rebranded as the Buckeye Conference. The league ended in 1987 as most schools joined either the Buckeye Central Conference or the Erie Shore League.

Crawford County League

A small-school county league, the CCL was organized in 1935 and did not have a change in membership until 1958. Nevada joined in 1961, after the Wyandot County League folded, with the CCL only having four remaining schools. Buckeye Central and Colonel Crawford, two recent consolidations, left for the North Central Conference the following year, with the three remaining schools consolidating into Wynford in 1963.

Firelands League

  1. Concurrent with Huron County League throughout FL tenure.

Great Lakes League

(1956–2003) The GLL existed from fall of 1956 until spring of 2003 before essentially transforming into the Greater Buckeye Conference. It had been born off of the old Great Northern Conference's Orange Division. The following schools were members at some point:

Great Northern Conference

(c. 1945-1956)

The Great Northern Conference was created shortly after the end of World War II with the inaugural members of Clay, Maumee, Perrysburg, Rossford, Whitmer, and Sylvania. Anthony Wayne would join in 1953 after recently being consolidated. The GNC eventually added several members in 1956, splitting into a big schools division (Orange Division) and small schools division (Blue Division), both which would later split off into the Great Lakes League and Northern Lakes League, respectively.

Greater Buckeye Conference

(2003-2011)

Huron County League

  1. Concurrent with Twin Valley League pre-1936-41.
  2. Concurrent with Firelands League 1934-53.
  3. Concurrent with Northern Ohio Athletic League 1927-47, then Firelands League 1947-53.
  4. Concurrent with Good Neighbors League pre-1936-41).

Huron-Erie League

This conference, the direct precursor to the Firelands Conference, was formed in 1953, as the Huron County League merged with two Erie County members of the old Firelands League, causing the remaining members to form the Lakeland Conference. With four members (and one new consolidation) remaining, the league dissolved and found new members to form the FC.

see Huron-Erie League Standings

Johnny Appleseed Conference

The all-time members of the Johnny Appleseed Conference.

Lakeshore Conference

(1963–1972; 1979–1985) The Lakeshore Conference were two separate leagues made-up of schools that were in both loops. The original conference was formed in 1963 and folded in 1972 when four of its six members left. The second Lakeshore Conference came into existence around 1979 and folded after the 1985 football season.

First Version

Second Version:

The league folded after the 1985 football season when Hopewell-Loudon, North Baltimore, St. Wendelin and Seneca East left for the Midland Athletic League. This left Danbury, Northwood, and Ottawa Hills as independents until Northwood joined the Suburban Lakes League in 1986 and the other two joined the Toledo Area Athletic Conference in 1988.

Six Schools Set For New League

Little Big League

Formed as Northern Ohio League in 1911 and then renamed Little Big 6 after Bellevue and Fremont Ross join in 1912. Renamed Little Big 7 after Oberlin joins in 1921. Elyria and Lorain replaced by Tiffin Columbian and Willard in 1927. Renamed Little Big 5 after Fremont Ross, Sandusky and Tiffin Columbian leave to form Buckeye Conference and are replaced by Port Clinton. Became Little Big 4 once Oberlin moved to the Southwestern League in 1937, most of the league grouped with other schools under the NOL banner in 1944.

  1. Concurrent with Lake Erie League 1923-26.

Maumee Valley League

The MVL began in 1931, as four of the larger schools of the Lucas County League joined with Perrysburg and Rossford, two of their larger neighbors nearby in Wood County. In 1945, all of the schools except for Holland (who jumped from the LCL when Point Place closed) left to join the Great Northern Conference, along with LCL team Oregon Clay. The remaining Lucas County teams merged into the MVL. Three of these schools merged to form Anthony Wayne in 1951. After some changes, the league entered its last leg in 1957, when Delta and Swanton left, leaving four members. Within the next three years, three of the four found other conference homes.

Michigan-Ohio Border Conference

Six Schools Set For New League

Mid-Western League

(1929[2]-1936)

Midland Athletic League

(1985-2014)

Conference Website: http://www.tiffinohiosports.com/midland_athletic_league.html

North Central Conference (Crawford County area)

Northern Border League

see NBL History

Archbold, Liberty Center, Montpelier, and Wauseon were dual members of the NBL and the NWOAL during the league's entire existence. Evergreen was for the first two years of the league's existence until fully staying in the NBL. See NWOAL for the league history.


Northern Ohio League

Note: Six of the remaining NOL members were absorbed by the Sandusky Bay Conference for the 2017-18 school year.

Northwest Buckeye League

(football only)

Ohio Heartland Conference

Ashland, Lexington, Madison, Mansfield Senior, and Orrville helped to form the Ohio Cardinal Conference in 2003. Vermilion joined the West Shore Conference while Marion Harding left for the Greater Buckeye Conference.

Ohio Wrestling League (wrestling only)

Disbanded after 2013-2014 season when the Blanchard Valley Conference expanded.[3]

Richland County League

see the Richland County Standings

San-Wood League

Sandusky County League

While containing only Sandusky County teams for most of its existence, at one point the conference had members from four different counties. The league disbanded in 1967, as three of its four remaining schools already had ties with the Lakeshore League, starting in 1963.

Sandusky River League

All schools in the SRL headed to the Sandusky Bay Conference in 2016.[4]

Seaway Conference

Seneca-Sandusky League

(1933-???)

Suburban Lakes League

(1972–2011)

Trolley League

(1919-1921/22?)

Twin Valley League

(1936/37-???)

Wood County "B" League

The smaller schools in Wood County started to organize into leagues in the early 1930s, originally competing in three separate leagues: the Northern Wood County League, Southeast Wood County League, and Western Wood County League. By 1959, consolidation and schools leaving for other leagues had whittled the three leagues down to two, with the Northern and Southeast leagues combining into the Eastern Wood County League. This would only last for one year, as further consolidation caused a merger into a single league. The league ended in 1963, as the number of schools was whittled to three.

Full Membership List

League Alignments

Wyandot County League

A county league for smaller schools that existed before 1939, and folded in 1961.

See also

Notes and references

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