Conference Realignment: High School

Born & raised here in Wellston, Ohio I have grown up in this football culture. And I love it. Truly do. That’s why I have a passion to try and cover the local area as seen by my “pitch” or “idea” for WSAZ. But this blog post will be to talk about preserving one of the most historic conferences in all of Ohio high school athletics.

The Southeastern Ohio Athletic League (SEOAL) was founded in 1925 with eight members: Athens, Gallia Academy, Ironton, Jackson, Logan, Nelsonville, Portsmouth and Wellston. Naturally, over the years teams came and left. I only heard tales of Wellston playing in the SEOAL from my father as they were in the Tri-Valley Conference by the time I was old enough to remember anything and I always loved the thought of Wellston competing against these schools in a league setting. That’s not to downplay the TVC but Jackson are our rivals and Ironton and Portsmouth are two of the most important and historical schools in our area.

Over the past couple of years there has been increasing talk that the SEOAL is on the brink of folding and going away forever. Ironton and Portsmouth returned to the SEOAL in 2006 along with Chillicothe and Zanesville to bolster the league and give them two divisions. I was not a strong supporter of Zanesville being included because of where they are geographically located. Athens left for the TVC after the 2007 season, Zanesville left after the 2008 season and Ironton returned to independent status after the 2009 season leaving the league with six schools.

The talk recently has been for Logan, Chillicothe and Warren to leave for other leagues. While sad to lose a founding school in Logan I believe that the powers to be should look at stabilizing the league long-term with new additions and maintaining the history of the league. So for the purpose of this re-alignment lets assume that Logan and Warren accept invitations for another league putting the pressure on the SEOAL to determine their future… and this is my plan:

First and foremost I believe all leagues should have no more than eight members. That gives you seven weeks of league play and three open dates to schedule other schools. I believe that’s the optimal set-up, especially for our region. The current schools are:
Chillicothe, Gallia Academy, Jackson and Portsmouth.

I have heard that Portsmouth has tried previously to get in to the SOC but the other local schools in Scioto County have blocked them which was one reason for them to re-join the SEOAL after 78 years out of the league. If that’s the case then I am happy to have them remain in the league. This leaves four open spots for expansion. Now who should be invited?

I am sorry to say TVC but you are about to be raided. I would invite Athens, Nelsonville-York, Vinton County and Wellston. Why?

By inviting these four you are adding history, solid athletic teams and a sense of balance in travel. Besides Portsmouth, all teams are within 40 minutes (by my calculations) of one another. All but Vinton County are founding members as well. It also keeps scheduling similar to what it is now.

What about competitive balance? Jackson would immediately be seen as the power, as they are now, but they would get stiff challenges from consistent programs like Nelsonville-York and Athens. Also, outside of Nelsonville-York, all schools would fall within DIII and DIV. One any given year any school can compete with the others as we have seen in the last decade. And, as I mentioned above, you still have three open dates to fill. That would allow Portsmouth to continue its storied rivalry with Ironton and other schools could follow suit with past rivalries or area schools.

The two biggest reasons I believe this is the right way to go (if Logan or Warren defect – and I would add all but Vinton County if only one left) is because it adds history back to the league as well as local schools to cut down on travel. Travel is one of the major factors a school like Zanesville left. With all these schools being familiar with one another it will also foster new rivalries, or rekindle those that were lost, in the new, now stable, Southeastern Ohio Athletic League.

 

What WSAZ Sports Should Do…

Those that know me know that I am big on web content and growing litany of web media. It’s no longer the future it is the present. So, that’s where this blog post is heading.

WSAZ is our local NBC affiliate. They cover West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky and Southern Ohio. And maybe it’s because I grew up with WSAZ but I’ve yet to be able to stomach another local news broadcast from top to bottom. I thoroughly enjoy the WSAZ crew. But I do feel as if they can capitalize (maybe with me, wink wink) on an open opportunity in this region. What am I proposing? Suggesting? Whatever-ing?

I feel that WSAZ Sports needs to expand itself into the digital landscape with a fresh, dedicated website that will enhance the coverage of our region. High school athletics is the driving force here, but this region also has a gluttony of collegiate athletics to cover and 7-10 minutes a broadcast is not enough to scrape the surface. A website, with one to two full-time “editors” or “writers” will be able to provide first-class coverage to this area. This would actually be a project I would love to be a part of. I don’t pretend to have all of the answers so if anything I say is factually inaccurate then please let me know. However, I believe they could post AP stories written by local media outlets to the site. This would help the most in terms of getting new content up immediately following games. But, in my opinion, there are two key things for this endeavor.

1. New, fresh content
Having the dedicated website would allow the sports team to provide more in-depth coverage and do things they probably wish they could do right now. Podcasts, feature articles, longer video highlight packages and the potential for live-streaming games. The first parts are easy enough to accomplish but heavily increase the profile of the website. A weekly Keith Morehouse column would be a winner in my book. Local scouting profiles, highlighting our storied rivalries and a whole lot more. Along with this you could develop pages containing past seasons’ scores and stats – but I admit that’s a lofty goal that would take time and dedication (of which I have, just saying).

As for the live streaming of games… I truly feel that is an underrated aspect to this. Not just from local high school match-ups but our local universities. Shawnee State, Rio Grande, Morehead State, Pikeville, Cambellsville and many others including the possibility for Marshall athletic contests. These are things that could bring in hits and advertisers.

2. Forums
A lot of people don’t like forums but the bottom line is that they help build communities and assist in the value of a web property. Sherdog.com has been outspoken about how much traffic their forums generate for their site and make it non-expendable. And the reason I know it would work for the site I am proposing is because I am a member of a local Ohio high school sports forum. And I’m sure you’d think being just Southeastern Ohio that it would maybe draw 100-200 regular members at most? That’s what I thought, and I was wrong. During the peak period, football season, on a Friday night they draw upwards of 800-900 people. The last Friday of the regular season saw a new forum record of 982 visitors online at the same time. Now add in WV and KY to the mix and you are talking thousands of visitors coming to the website to read, watch and discuss.

In my opinion this is an attractive opportunity for WSAZ. I truly believe that this enhances their brand and expands the coverage of our region. It would become the go-to website in our region.