A new league consisting of religious-based parochial schools, named the North Coast Conference, was announced by member schools on May 31.
The new league will include Lake Catholic, Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, Beaumont and Padua from the Crown Conference, Elyria Catholic and Holy Name from the Great Lakes Conference and Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy from the Principal’s Athletic Conference.
The North Coast Conference will begin play in the 2024-25 school year.
According to a news release obtained by The News-Herald, all the schools will compete in their current conferences during the 2023-24 school year with North Coast Conference play beginning in the fall of 2024. Football will be the only exception, as not every school will play each other since most of the 2024 schedules have already been completed. Even though there will not be a football league champion in 2024, all-conference honors will be awarded.
“The transition to the North Coast Conference is a great opportunity for Lake Catholic and our partner schools,” said Lake Catholic Principal Tom McKrill. “Our students work very hard in the classroom every day, and this will be a great opportunity for our student-athletes to continue to compete with other faith-based schools in interscholastic athletics.”
Lake Catholic Athletic Director Erik Schroeder is excited about the competitive balance between all the schools.
“We’re excited to be a part of the seven schools forming the North Coast Conference,” Schroeder said. “The NCC is going to be very competitive across all sports and is made up of schools of similar size. We believe that the new conference is a great fit for our student-athletes.”
Jason Baxter, incoming athletic director at NDCL, also raves of the new conference.
“The NCC is a fit for us in a variety of different ways: enrollment, sports offered, and competitiveness were all key factors in exploring this option,” Baxter said. “We are very excited for this next chapter, and truly believe that this is what is best for Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin and our student-athletes”
Said Kevin Leigh, athletic director at Padua, “We were looking to find a combination of schools with similar enrollments and sport offerings. With the changes across a number of conferences in the area, the opportunity presented itself for the seven schools to come together to form this new conference. We believe the North Coast Conference will be a very competitive conference across all sports with our member schools.”
The Crown Conference has included Lake Catholic, NDCL, Padua, Beaumont and Walsh Jesuit. However, Walsh Jesuit is not included in this newly formed conference.
The Great Lakes Conference underwent a major shift earlier this month. After Fairview announced in February it was departing for the Chagrin Valley Conference after the 2023-2024 school year, the remaining eight public schools — Bay, Medina Buckeye, Lakewood, Normandy, North Olmsted, Rocky River, Valley Forge and Westlake — announced they were leaving the GLC to form a new league. That left Elyria Catholic and Holy Name searching for a new conference home.
“The North Coast Conference will be very competitive in all sports,” said EC athletic director Jim Piazza. “We are excited about this new beginning and the opportunities that this conference will provide our student-athletes.”
Said Holy Name athletic director Richard Kozub. “With several conferences in Northeast Ohio experiencing changes recently, including the GLC, this opportunity to join and form a new conference was one we could not pass up. We wanted to be in a conference with schools that have similar enrollments and sports offerings to Holy Name, and we have found that in the NCC. Each of the seven schools believes the NCC will offer high levels of competition across all sports, providing great experiences for our student-athletes.”
CVCA will be leaving a Principal’s Athletic Conference that also includes Wooster Triway, Akron Manchester, Canton South, Canal Fulton Northwest, Navarre Fairless, Orrville and Massillon Tuslaw.
“We are grateful for our many years in the Principal’s Athletic Conference. The relationships established amongst league members have been invaluable,” said Jon Young, CVCA’s Athletic Director on the school’s website. “We have appreciated the wonderful competition over the years and the chance to sharpen each other through athletic competition. Now, we are thrilled to be joining the North Coast Conference. The member schools of the North Coast Conference are the perfect combination of similar enrollment sizes and similar sports offered. We look forward to establishing new relationships with each of the schools.”
