After roughly a year of will they, won’t they, the Eastern Cincinnati Conference has finally decided to expand.
The league announced on Friday, November 9 that three schools, Lebanon, Little Miami and Winton Woods, were invited to join the conference beginning with the 2020-2021 school year. All three schools were given a deadline of November 23 to accept the invitation, but all three did so that day.
This wasn’t the first time the league considered adding members. The conference voted not to expand earlier this year, but there was a difference this time around: Withrow has notified the conference that they will leave in 2020 and move to the Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference.
That decision left the league with a vacancy, and as such the league opened a window for applications earlier this fall. Conference commissioner Ray Spicher said the process was a relatively simple one.
“Withrow notified us that they had applied to go back to the CMAC, and that was going to leave us with an opening,” Spicher said. “We advertised for anybody that was interested in joining the conference to submit a letter of interest, and the three schools that were admitted had all submitted the letter.”
According to Spicher, the three schools that were accepted into the league were the only three that applied. Spicher also noted that the league would not have divisions, and that the decision to expand to 10 teams as opposed to simply filling Withrow’s spot in the league was made after comparing the ECC to other, similar conferences in the area.
“We had previously had the discussion on if we wanted to become a 10 team league,” Spicher said. “Some conferences were already a 10 team league, like the GMC or the GWOC, comparable conferences, and had gone to an eight-game football schedule. We had a conversation about if that was in our best interest a while back and when the opportunity presented itself, our principals decided that was the way they wanted to go.”
The principals of each member high school serve on the league’s board of control. The board voted to expand the league to 10 teams, with each of the member schools bringing something to the table.
“Lebanon and Little Miami both border some of our current member schools,” Spicher said. “It creates neighborhood rivalries for Kings and Loveland.”
Winton Woods has familiarity with several of the schools in the conference already, having been a member of the Fort Ancient Valley Conference until the league broke apart in 2012.
Current ECC schools Loveland, Walnut Hills, Milford, Anderson, Kings and Turpin were all members of the league with the Warriors. While West Clermont was never technically a league member, both Glen Este and Amelia were at one point.
“Winton Woods has been out there without a conference, and as the principals sat and mulled over the decision they decided taking all three was in our best interests,” Spicher said.
Lebanon and Little Miami were both members of the FAVC at one point as well. Lebanon currently plays in the Greater Western Ohio Conference with schools from Miamisburg, Northmont and Springboro. Little Miami is a member of the Southwest Ohio Conference, along with Ross and Harrison, among others.
Spicher said he believes the league will become one of the top leagues in the state thanks to the addition of the three new members.
“I think it’s going to be the best public high school league in the state of Ohio when you look from top to bottom,” Spicher said. “Loveland won a championship in girls soccer, Lebanon has won a girls softball state championship. We always have football teams that are in contention for state championships. Cross country, golf and tennis, things like that, there are just outstanding programs from top to bottom in just about every school.”
Spicher finished by noting his excitement about what lies ahead for the league.
“We’re just really excited about the process and what the future holds for us,” Spicher said.