Winner: Adding East Clinton may have saved SCOL

By JEFF GILLILAND

OCM News

HILLSBORO — Despite London High School’s decision Tuesday to depart the South Central Ohio League, and the same possibility looming at Madison-Plains, SCOL Commissioner Jim Winner said that the league has no plans to expand at this time.

The London Board of Education voted 5-0 Tuesday to leave the SCOL for the Mid-State League following the 2012-13 school year.

It had been reported by The Madison Press that the Madison-Plains Board of Education would make a decision Tuesday or whether to stay in the SCOL or join the MSL, but Winner said Wednesday that the MSL extended its deadline for Madison-Plains’ decision until Tuesday, Jan. 17.

“We had a (SCOL) athletics directors meeting Thursday, but until we find out what Madison-Plains is going to do next week, we’ll put everything on the table and see what kind of scenarios we can come up with,” Winner said.

What is for sure, even if Madison-Plains decides to leave the SCOL, is that the SCOL will not disband, Winner said.

About a year ago, the SCOL voted to admit East Clinton into the league starting with the 2012-13 school year. Winner said that especially if Madison-Plains also opts to depart, the decision to add East Clinton may have saved the league.

“Yes, that’s definitely big now because you need six teams to have a viable league,” Winner said. “Five teams just really are not enough.”

At the same time the SCOL voted to accept East Clinton, it declined a request from to join the league Wilmington, a longtime and charter member of the SCOL dating back to 1923.

If Wilmington were to join the SCOL, it would be by far the largest school in the league.

Winner said the SCOL’s principals have a meeting scheduled for March 8, but to this point there’s been no recent league discussion about adding any schools.

“Since we added East Clinton a little over a year ago we haven’t really talked about anything as far as league members, because it was just the last two months and that London and Madison-Plains announced they were exploring anything,” Winner said.

Winner said the biggest impact from teams leaving the league will be felt in scheduling, especially in football. And, that impact will be felt doubly hard if Madison-Plains also departs.

“It’s not so much in the first weeks of a season, because everyone else is playing non-league games too,” Winner said. “But in football, with London gone in week four, it will be very difficult because week four will be a league game for most schools. And if we’re down to six schools, we’ll have to find opponents for week five.

“It will take some creative scheduling, but I’m sure our ADs will be up to the task.”

Winner said that throughout the recent discussions, both London and Madison-Plains have been very upfront with the SCOL about their intentions.

“Ben Mann at London called us as soon as their board voted (Tuesday) night,” Winner said. “Both schools have always acted with class and professionalism, and they had to do what they thought was best for their student-athletes. We’re sure going to miss one or both of them.”

Posted by Staff Reports on Jan 13 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.