Black Tiger Family,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of Cuyahoga Falls Athletics and the student athletes that make this place so great. Each and everyday we are achieving success both on the playing field, and in the classroom.
This year Cuyahoga Falls High School will be competing in a new league. The new 18 school conference was created through a merger of the remaining teams in the Western Reserve and Pioneer Conferences, along with Garfield Heights and Lakewood High Schools, which had previously expressed interest in joining the two conferences.
The schools that will be competing in the Northeast Ohio Conference are Brunswick, Brush, Cuyahoga Falls, Elyria, Garfield Heights, Hudson, Lakewood, Mayfield, Medina, Nordonia, Normandy, North Royalton, Parma, Solon, Stow-Munroe Falls, Strongsville, Twinsburg, and Valley Forge. The new league has received the endorsement of the superintendents and school boards responsible for all of the 18 schools.
The Northeast Ohio Conference will operate with three, six team divisions. To ensure the most optimal competition for student athletes, schools will compete in different divisions on a sport by sport basis. This conference format enables the unique needs of each school district and each sport to be addressed, since variables such as school size, geographic location and individual team records have been considered in establishing the divisions. The league has committed to revisiting the divisional alignment every two years to ensure competition levels remain high.
The problem of unstable league alignments has been prevalent since the early 1990’s, a factor caused by changing demographics in the Northeast Ohio area. Conferences have increased and decreased in size and in some instances dissolved as schools switched conferences in search of parity or increased competition. These dynamics placed strain on athletic programs to compete equally in all sports.
The new Northeast Ohio Conference will break that cycle of uncertainty and ensure steady competition. In setting the schedules, the league will also work to maintain traditional rivalries through the divisional alignment or non-divisional play. Although long-standing rivals may not be in the same division, those schools could still play independently during the season.
Join me in supporting the Black Tigers as we begin the quest to compete for league championships in all sports throughout the 2007-2008 school year.
Jeffrey D. Harrison
