Journey Blevins of North Union hits the ball past an Indian Lake blocker during a Central Buckeye Conference volleyball game at North Union. The Lady Cats are new additions to the CBC this year where they won a conference titles in both volleyball and boy’s cross-country.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
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Transition to a new athletic conference can come with its own set of challenges.
There are new teams, new gyms and unknown strategies.
North Union athletes have overcome those challenges as they have made the transition from the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference to the Central Buckeye Conference.
North Union played its inaugural season in the CBC this fall in every sport except football.
The Wildcat football squad finished its final season in the MOAC with a 7-3 record and will move to the CBC next fall.
North Union athletic director-head football coach Nick Hajjar said the move was something that has been coming for a while.
“I think it was inevitable for us as a school district to relocate,” he said. “The scope of the current MOAC has changed drastically and pretty quickly.
“As enrollments changed, schools moved elsewhere and those natural contests that we were used to playing, we weren’t seeing anymore. As other schools continued to come into the conference, those schools were bigger.”
North Union used to be in the middle of the MOAC pack when it came to school size. As it exits the conference, NU will leave as one of the smallest with only Pleasant being of similar size.
With the size of the MOAC in flux, that led North Union to look elsewhere and it quickly found a friend in the CBC.
“We found a pretty quick relationship with the CBC,” Hajjar said. “We went on the circuit a bit with visiting those schools and meeting with people from those schools.
“We had first-hand experience with those schools in either non-league or scrimmages and different invitational contests, so there was comfortableness.”
Now as a full-time member of the CBC, the Wildcats join the likes of Northwestern, Benjamin Logan, Graham, Urbana and Indian Lake in the Mad River Division of the conference.
Bellefontaine, Jonathan Alder, Springfield Shawnee, Tecumseh, Kenton Ridge and newly-added London will comprise the Kenton Trails Division during crossover games.
The two divisions allow the league to divide schools up by size to allow better competition within the conference.
However, the circuit still allows schools from the different divisions to compete during crossover games, something Hajjar believes is beneficial.
“The league has set rules for crossover games by sport and we all appreciate it,” he said. “If you don’t mandate crossover games, then we have two leagues trying to act like one and that can get ugly.”
The Wildcats have surged through the transition with ease during their first season in the league. The boys cross-country team won a conference title, while the Lady Cats volleyball team captured their first conference crown in school history.
Hajjar believes the competition has been better for his school.
“I thought it was great for those two teams (cross-country and volleyball) and programs to do that,” Hajjar said. “I hope ultimately that it increases (student) participation.
“I think it is natural to gravitate to something successful,” he said. “I think that one of the goals is the continued success in order for those great experiences to continue.”
Although the league itself is in the Southwest District of the Ohio High School Athletic Association, Hajjar believes it will not affect NU teams, which are in the Central District, when it comes to post season play.
“If you really break down how tournaments work or how accolades work, it is not going to be much different,” Hajjar said. “Most schools in the MOAC were bigger. We weren’t playing teams we would be playing in tournaments anyway.”
The Wildcats’ answer for keeping their edge against Central District teams is to play them in non-league competition.
“We are still going to play Pleasant and other Central District schools in non-league games in a lot of sports,” said Hajjar. “That’s in order to keep that connection to the district.
“It actually might allow us to play more Central District schools to help us with that familiarity when it comes to tournament time.”
With the CBC feeling like a good fit for the Wildcats in size and competition, Hajjar hopes they have found a place they can call home for a while.
“You can sense some new rivalries already starting and it will be very interesting to see winter here with wrestling, basketball and bowling,” said Hajjar. “The CBC has good teams in all of those sports and we are excited to see what happens.”