LOUDONVILLE — The way Loudonville coach John Battaglia sees it, everything about the Redbirds’ move to the Knox Morrow Athletic Conference makes sense.
The KMAC agrees.
Loudonville joined the KMAC as a football-only member this fall after spending the past five seasons as a football-only member of the Stark County-based Principals Athletic Conference.
The Redbirds compete in the Mid-Buckeye Conference in all other sports, but three of the six member schools in the MBC don’t offer football.
The MBC’s other two football-playing schools, Lucas and Crestline, have also had to get creative with their approach to football scheduling. Crestline competes as a football-only member in the Northwest Central Conference, which is based in western Ohio. Lucas plays an entirely independent schedule.
In terms of student population, Loudonville was never an especially good fit in the PAC. According to the most recent enrollment figures provided to the Ohio High School Athletic Association by the Ohio Department of Education, Loudonville had 115 boys in grades nine through 11 as of Oct. 31, 2021 — the smallest male student population among the PAC members.
In fact, Loudonville had less than half as many boys to choose from as the PAC’s biggest schools. Canal Fulton Northwest had a male student enrollment of 250, while Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy was at 232.
When the competitive balance equation was applied to produce adjusted enrollment figures, the disparity was even greater. CVCA’s adjusted enrollment figure for the 2022 football season is 286, putting the non-public Summit County school in Division III for football. Northwest competes in Division IV, while PAC members Fairless, Orrville, Triway and Manchester are all in Division V. Loudonville and Tuslaw were the only Division VI schools in the PAC.
Not surprisingly, Loudonville struggled against the bigger PAC schools. The Redbirds were a combined 6-28 in five seasons in the PAC.
“Being in the PAC, for Loudonville, we were just a little out of our element,” Battaglia said. “We were playing some private schools and some schools that were a bit bigger than us.”
Loudonville is still among the smallest members of the KMAC, but the difference between the conference’s biggest schools and its smallest is not so glaring. With a base enrollment of 157 boys and a competitive balance-adjusted enrollment figure of 163, Fredericktown is the KMAC’s biggest school. Fredericktown and Centerburg (153 base enrollment/156 competitive balance-adjusted enrollment) compete in Division V, while Mount Gilead (131/141), Cardington-Lincoln (126/130), East Knox (125/141), Northmor (119/122) and Loudonville (115/125) are in Division VI. Danville (66/76) is the KMAC’s lone Division VII member.
Another determining factor in Loudonville’s move to the KMAC was geography. Bus rides to Danville and East Knox will be considerably shorter than the hour-plus trips to CVCA and Akron Manchester.
The average distance between Loudonville and the other PAC schools is 43.5 miles. CVCA is the furthest away at 69.4 miles.
The average trip in the KMAC will be 30.5 miles. The trip to Cardington will be Loudonville’s longest at 46.6 miles.
Loudonville and Danville high schools are 15.6 miles apart. The school districts share a border in northeastern Knox County.
“We’ve got Danville and East Knox. Those guys are kind of natural rivals to us,” Battaglia said. “We’re excited and I know the community is excited to get into that conference. We definitely think we can be competitive.”
With KMAC charter member Highland’s departure for the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference, KMAC officials wanted to find a new member that not only fit the enrollment profile, but maintained the conference’s high standard of play on the field.
Loudonville, which has been to the playoffs 10 times in program history and was the Division IV state runner-up in 1990, checked all the boxes.
“The conference is a relatively good football league from top to bottom. With Highland leaving, it was important to get a program that values football and has good facilities,” Fredericktown coach Will Hartley said. “Loudonville is a natural fit.
“Loudonville is attractive for the league because they are a similar-sized school to the current members, they have a solid football tradition and a passionate fan base. I’m really excited about renewing an old rivalry as I know Danville and East Knox are, too.”
