(9-18-23) Last Friday is a day that the Northwest Conference (NWC) made a move to solidify their future membership. The announcement comes after two members, Ada and Leipsic, both decided to leave for the Blanchard Valley Conference (BVC). The move was surprising to many and that put the NWC in a situation at the end of the last school year to find two new members.

When membership changes take place in an athletic conference the rumors start and don’t end until the issue is fixed.

The NWC winners…the NWC, LCC and Ft. Loramie —

The NWC is a winner in this case, they pick-up a full member in Lima Central Catholic that fits geographically well, while Ft. Loramie gets the ‘Dutch boy‘ fix for their football program.

The story, read aloud in a schoolroom in England, is about a Dutch boy who saves his country by putting his finger in a leaking dam. The boy stays there all night, in spite of the cold, until the villagers find him and repair the dam.

LCC and the NWC parted ways over 10 years ago…although it didn’t seem to be a ‘nasty’ divorce type situation…it did cause some hard feelings after it happened. To decide to bring back LCC the NWC makes a good decision, but the time it took them to add them might have shown there were still some issues to clear up between the two sides.

The NWC adds a football only member joining the neighboring Midwest Athletic Conference (MAC) by adding a Shelby County Athletic League (SCAL) member in Ft. Loramie. The Redskins have been an independent for the last several years after some conference realignments took place down south and leaving them without a league home. Is this perfect? No, but it works for now and it has worked for the MAC since they added Anna as football only member.

The NWC losers…Liberty-Benton, Delphos St. John’s and Parkway —

Depending who you talk with the three schools above could be considered losers in some aspects.

The two MAC members, Delphos St. John’s and Parkway, were both made public about receiving invitations to join the NWC. Both schools over the recent years have struggled as MAC members, but in the end both said ‘no thank you‘.

The two schools handled the invitation quite differently…Delphos St. John’s took their time in deciding which way they would go…including asking the communities and coaches their opinions and doing an in-depth look at what a change would do either way.

Parkway did the opposite…the only thing Parkway did was make the decision in-house and not doing any type of research on the issue.

At a Parkway Schools Board of Education meeting…

The board said during the meeting that they trusted their coaches and are confident in the district’s future role in the MAC. No vote was taken on the issue.

Liberty-Benton was asked politely to leave the BVC several years ago. Since that time they have been looking for a new athletic home…today they still are looking. Liberty-Benton had applied to the NWC the same time that LCC and Ft. Loramie did. Unlike LCC they are not a good fit, travel being one of the main considerations.

NWC rumors during the search abounded on who might move to the NWC…several schools were mentioned but never were confirmed by either those schools or the NWC.

Van Wert Independent’s Scott Truxell opinion on the NWC –