This isn’t Ron Dessecker’s first rodeo. The longtime Ohio Cardinal Conference commissioner has helped member schools navigate uncertain times in the past and he will do it again after OCC charter member West Holmes announced recently it has accepted an invitation to join the Principals Athletic Conference beginning with the 2028-29 school year.

That means the OCC is again looking for an eighth affiliate.

“We’ve been at seven schools before and we can do it again,” Dessecker said. “There really are no plans to do anything other than ride it out.”

OCC History

The OCC was born in the fall of 2003 as a seven-team conference. In addition to West Holmes, other charter members included Mansfield Senior, Madison, Lexington, Ashland, Orrville and Wooster.

Clear Fork joined for the 2004-05 school year, bringing the OCC roster to eight members.

The OCC enjoyed more than a decade of stability before Orrville accepted an invitation to the PAC in 2015. The Red Riders left the OCC in the fall of 2016.

Mount Vernon accepted an invitation to replace Orrville in March of 2015. The Yellow Jackets joined the OCC for the 2016-17 school year.

The addition of Mount Vernon and departure of Orrville created a widening enrollment disparity between the OCC’s biggest schools and its smallest. Consequently, Clear Fork left the OCC for the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference for the 2017-18 school year.

OCC membership stood at seven schools after Clear Fork’s departure. New Philadelphia joined the conference for the 2022-23 school year, the same year Mount Vernon left for the Licking County League.

Dover accepted an invitation to the OCC in February of 2024, bringing membership to eight. The Tornadoes joined the conference for the current school year, with football coming on board this fall.

Musical Chairs

The OCC looked to be on stable footing until West Holmes announced its intention to leave for the PAC last month. 

Lodi Cloverleaf will also join the PAC in 2028-29, vacating its spot in the Metro Athletic Conference.

The two openings in the PAC became available when Tuslaw and Fairless announced their intention to leave for the newly-formed Northeast Senate League. They will join Claymont, Sandy Valley and Tusky Valley of the Inter-Valley Conference and Carrollton, Marlington and Minerva of the Eastern Buckeye Conference.

The Inter-Valley Conference currently includes 14 member schools split into two divisions. Claymont, Sandy Valley and Tusky Valley all are members of the IVC South Division. 

The IVC announced in mid-February it was seeking new members to replace the three departing schools. There also is talk of re-aligning the remaining IVC members if the league can’t find any suitable replacements.

The East Buckeye Conference already was on tenuous footing as a six-team league spread across four counties. The three remaining EBC schools — Alliance, Salem and West Branch — are looking for a new conference home. 

One possible landing spot for the remaining EBC members is the Northeast 8 Athletic Conference. The seven-member Northeast 8 is centered in Trumbull and Mahoning counties in extreme eastern Ohio.

Dance Partner?

So where does that leave the OCC?

The conference has operated as a seven-team league on and off for several years, but the consensus among athletic directors is a seven-team conference is a scheduling nightmare.

Any replacement school would have to be voted in by the current members — no small feat considering the OCC’s geographic challenges.

The conference footprint stretches from Lexington in the west to Dover and New Philadelphia in the east. A suitable replacement for the Richland County OCC members may not appeal to the Tuscarawas County schools and vice versa.

According to data provided by the Ohio High School Athletic Association, there were 31 schools statewide operating as independents as of July 2025. There are no like-sized schools looking for a new conference home inside the current OCC geographic boundary.

Changing Landscape

Dessecker told me years ago that the ever-changing conference landscape is akin to throwing a rock into a pond.

“It creates ripples all the way to the shore in all directions,” Dessecker said. “You could have one or two teams move to a different conference in the northwest part of the state and you would see the repercussions all the way to the Ohio River.”

Conferences evolve and they are all inter-connected.

That is why Dessecker and the OCC’s member schools aren’t ready to panic.

“We’re in a holding pattern right now,” Dessecker said. “We’ll just have to play it by ear.”