CRESTLINE — The Northwest Central Conference came knocking a year early and Crestline threw open its doors.
The Bulldogs will join the NWCC as a football-only member beginning this season, moving to the western Ohio-based small-school conference a year ahead of schedule.
The opportunity to make the jump early presented itself late last week when the Ohio High School Athletic Association altered its scheduling guidelines because of the COVID-19 health crisis.
“We are really looking forward to the opportunity to compete this fall against several excellent programs,” Crestline athletic director Greg Travis said. “We now have an official league membership and (can) reward our student-athletes with recognition and honors, something that was unavailable for us in the Blanchard Valley Conference.”
Crestline was a trial member of the BVC in 2019, playing eight BVC opponents but not figuring in the conference standings. Additionally, Crestline players were not eligible for BVC postseason awards.
That arrangement was to continue this fall.
Meanwhile, Crestline announced in January it would join the NWCC as a football-only member beginning in the fall of 2021.
“This has been in the works for a while now. We accepted an invitations to join the NWCC next year and we were fulfilling our contract with the BVC, not as a member but as a school to fill a hole when another school (Hopewell-Loudon) left the conference,” Crestline football coach Jonny King said. “When everything kind of hit the fan here, the NWCC reached out to us pretty quickly about including us in their conference schedule.
“The BVC was interested in keeping us in their scheduling plans as well. The thing that kind of swayed it for us was the NWCC was offering full membership this year, so our kids would be eligible for postseason awards and we could compete for a league title.”
Wednesday’s announcement capped a whirlwind six-day span that started last Friday when the OHSAA announced its proposal for a modified six-game regular season.
The OHSAA plan allows for every school to qualify for the playoffs, which will begin Oct. 9. Teams that are eliminated from the playoffs can schedule regular season games for later in the season.
“The announcement went out as far as the changes with the OHSAA scheduling on Friday and by Saturday the NWCC had contacted us with an offer on the table,” King said. “By Sunday we had pretty much made up our minds.
“Then it was a matter of the school board having their meeting Monday to get it approved. It all happened pretty quickly.”
Crestline’s modified schedule includes six NWCC teams in the opening six weeks and a playoff opener in Week 7. The Bulldogs have three non-NWCC opponents scheduled for Weeks 8, 9 and 10. Those games could be canceled if the Bulldogs advance in the playoffs.
The NWCC sent two teams, Lima Perry and Hardin Northern, to the playoffs last fall. Other NWCC members include Waynesfield-Goshen, Lehman Catholic, Riverside, Upper Scioto Valley, Ridgemont and Marion Elgin.
Lehman Catholic and Riverside will leave the NWCC after the 2020-21 school year. Ridgedale will join the NWCC in the fall of 2021.
“The BVC has some schools we competed well against but … the teams at the top of the league were extremely good football programs and the teams in the bottom half were more where we were able to compete,” King said. “We had a hard time finding middle-ground teams that resulted in competitive games.
“The NWCC is much more balanced and week-in and week-out, we’re going to go into games thinking if we play well we will get our chance to win in the fourth quarter.”
