For the first time in our county’s history, all high schools are in the same OHSAA sanctioned athletic league.
Joining Blanchester who has been a league member for a number of years, Clinton-Massie, East Clinton and Wilmington will begin competition this month as members of the Southern Buckeye Athletic & Academic Conference.
To get to know the SBAAC, the News Journal has put together a page that appears in the Friday print edition (Page 14) as well as online at www.wnewsj.com. It includes a map of league communities and a brief bio on each school.
Dating back to the start of the Clinton County League in the mid-1910s, there has been at least two leagues covering county schools.
Wilmington has always been a city school while the rest of the districts were considered county schools. There also was the Class B and Class A designations for big schools (Class A) and small schools (Class B) when post-season tournaments got underway. Class B schools were in the CCL while Class A schools were in other leagues.
So when there was a Clinton County League, Wilmington was never part of it. Until the SCOL began as a competitive conference in 1923-24, Wilmington did not have a league, so there always was at least one school in our county that was not part of the CCL.
Blanchester, at one point, grew enough to be moved to Class A so it was not part of the CCL for a year.
To get to this point in time, our four county schools have taken a circuitous route the past 25 years.
CM, EC and WHS were left standing in the cold when five other schools took leave of the SCOL and decided to go their own way to form a new league.
The SBAAC officially began its existence in 1987. However, the league dates backs to the old Clermont County League which started in 1919. according to the SBAAC website. The name Clermont County League didn’t work well when schools outside Clermont County became part of the league’s footprint so a change was made.
Blanchester joined the SBAAC in 1992, leaving the fast-growing Fort Ancient Valley Conference. Blanchester then left the SBAAC in 1995 for the Kenton Trace Conference but came back in 2001 and has been a member ever since.
Clinton-Massie and East Clinton have been members of the SBAAC in the past — CM from 2001 to 2005 and EC from 2001 to 2012. Both schools left to join the ill-fated SCOL.
So here we are. Four county schools in the same league. A league that wants them. A league that embraces the challenges that lie ahead. A league that isn’t running from the competition.
Welcome to the SBAAC.
