MANSFIELD, Ohio — What started as a small-scale experiment has blossomed into a 12-school, 24-team extravaganza in the past 12 months.
The second Richland Source NOL-OCC Challenge tips off at 11 a.m. Saturday at Shelby High School with the first of six back-to-back games pitting girls teams from Northern Ohio League schools against Ohio Cardinal Conference opponents. Boys teams will take center stage the following Saturday at Ontario High School.
Last year’s Richland Source NOL-OCC Challenge included boys and girls teams from Lexington and Madison of the OCC and Ontario and Norwalk of the NOL. This year’s event will again include Lexington and Madison along with Mansfield Senior, Clear Fork, Ashland and Mount Vernon of the OCC. Ontario and Norwalk will be joined by fellow NOL members Shelby, Sandusky, Bellevue and Tiffin Columbian.
“It wasn’t a difficult sell to bring in additional schools from our league,” said Lexington athletic director Joe Roberts, one of the architects of the showcase along with Ontario AD Chris Miller. “We met with the rest of the OCC schools after the first year and most of them were all in. We would have liked to include Wooster and West Holmes, but they already compete in showcase events like this and didn’t have openings on their schedules.”
Like Roberts, Miller didn’t have a hard time recruiting addition NOL schools to participate.
“When those schools saw the format and saw the title of the event, they wanted to represent the NOL,” Miller said. “The most challenging this wasn’t to convince other league schools to participate, but to work everything out logistically so that everyone involved had those Saturdays open.”
Richland Source returned as title sponsor for a second year.
“To see the event grow from four teams to 12 in just one year is a testament … to North Central Ohio’s passion for basketball,” Richland Source publisher Jay Allred said. “Thousands of fans and hundreds of athletes are in for a heckuva fun time.”
Several other area businesses got onboard as well. Mechanics Bank Be the Change scholarship program is the presenting sponsor in partnership with BW3, The Holden Agency and Marco Photo Service. Supporting sponsors include Olive Garden, North Central State College, Rinehart Walters Danner Insurance, Prospering Life Events, Text Loyal, The Vault Wine Bar, Best Buy and Lantz Star Graphics.
“Our Be the Change scholarship program is targeted toward high school students,” Mechanics Bank marketing director Kristi Lord said. “The program is only a couple years old and we thought this would be the perfect audience to get in front of.”
The future of the showcase is a little cloudy because the Northern Ohio League will cease operation after the 2016-17 school year. Six of the seven current NOL members, including Shelby, will join the Sandusky Bay Conference. Ontario will head for the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference.
Miller wants to see the event continue regardless of schools’ conference affiliations.
“The NOL won’t exist but I would love to involve more area schools,” Miller said. “There is great basketball in the area and we want to showcase it while doing something special for the kids at the same time.”
Events such as the The Richland Source NOL-OCC Challenge do not happen without tremendous partners. The NOL-OCC Challenge is presented by Mechanics Bank Be the Change scholarship program in partnership with The Holden Agency and Marco Photo Service. Supporting sponsors include Olive Garden, North Central State College, Rinehart Walters Danner Insurance, Prospering Life Events, Best Buy, TextLoyal, The Vault Wine Bar, The Ohio State University at Mansfield, and Lantz Star Graphics.
