Another area high school conference will be adding bowling as a competitive league sport and it will mean future changes for the Stark County High School Bowling Conference.
The Inter-Valley Conference plans on adding bowling for the 2023-24 school year. Eight conference schools — Conotton Valley, East Canton, Claymont, Garaway, Tuscarawas Central Catholic, Sandy Valley, Newcomerstown and Indian Valley — participated in bowling during the 2022-23 season.
All eight are Division II schools with all but one, East Canton, being members of the East District. Five also are members of the Stark Conference.
“We have added enough teams to have it as a league sport for the the last two years,” IVC commissioner Don Spinell said “It was brought to my attention that certain schools no longer wanted to be part of the Stark conference because of the way they have been treated.”
The SCHSBC has operated with four divisions for the past three seasons. However, due to team withdrawals, the Southeastern Division was reduced to just four teams this season.
“We did not find out about Dover until the day before we constructed the schedule. Then, we were contacted by Indian Valley the day after the schedule was made, which tied our hands,” SCHSBC president Bill Snier said of the depleted Southeastern Division. “We had a phone conversation with the athletic directors from Sandy Valley and Claymont to listen to their concerns. We then tried to aid the situation by trying to convince other teams to schedule them and fill the void.
“At the end of the season, TCC said in an email they were not in the conference all season. That was not what was communicated to us at the start of the season by their athletic director.”
The loss of the five teams would reduce the Stark Conference to 18 schools overall, with another division realignment occurring, reducing the divisions back to three.
East Canton head coach Craig Linerode and Conotton Valley head coach Brian Baxter are not happy about the IVC move, but their hands are tied.
“I discussed with my AD multiple ways of trying to run the program and stay in the Stark County league, which is our preference,” Linerode said. “My concern is the travel involved. As a teacher, I would have to pull out of my classroom earlier to get to some of these matches since bowling is an earlier in the day sport.
“Competition-wise, I don’t think there will be a drop-off with Conotton Valley and Sandy Valley being competitive and others will be in the future. I’m more worried from an organizational standpoint. Will bowling be treated like any other sport?”
Baxter said the opportunities of bowling some of the traditional powers in the Stark such as GlenOak, Perry and Triway, helped to provide a barometer for his team.
“I’m not saying we won’t have those kinds of teams in the future with the IVC, but competition is a key,” Baxter said. “Myself, I’ve been pleased with the what Stark County has done for our program. That’s why we always came back.”
Spinell said the proposal includes two round-robin home-and-away matches for each team against league opponents followed by a postseason tournament, possibly at Conotton Valley’s new Rocket Center. That would mean 15 dates out of a possible 24 mandated as the limit by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
“We have been taking about this for about two months, but the rubber has to hit the road at the next meeting.. Things are being brought up that people can’t make a decision on,” Spinell said. “Discussions started last year.
“With 14 total teams, we’re hoping adding this will start a discussion among the other six schools (Ridgewood, Hiland, Buckeye Trail, Tuscarawas Valley, Strasburg, Malvern). Honestly, these teams are not taking a wrestler or basketball player very often. In a lot of cases, this is the only sport some of these kids may play in the winter.”
The IVC has a meeting set for March 2. “Hopefully, we can make a decision then,” Spinell said.
Linerode said the Hornets will continue to schedule Lake, Akron Hoban and Rootstown to have experience at their venues., The Hornets also plan to continue their varsity tournament and turn it into an invitational next season.
“It played out so well using the sectional-district oil pattern,” Linerode said. “That extra experience on that pattern is invaluable, and we still need to do tournaments.”
Baxter agrees.
“We will plan on bowling as many competitive events as we can with what is left of our 24 and find the best competition we can,” Baxter said.