Eight Ohio high schools with storied football reputations that span decades will come together two years from now to begin play in the Ohio Catholic Athletic Conference.
The formation of the new conference, which at the outset will include football only, was announced earlier this month by the member schools from central and northeast Ohio.
Columbus St. Francis DeSales, Bishop Watterson and Bishop Hartley comprise three of the eight high schools. The others are Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph, Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit, Youngstown Ursuline and Youngstown Cardinal Mooney.
“This unique partnership allows these eight Catholic schools the great opportunity to showcase not only their prowess in the athletic realm but their acumen in the classroom as well as their leadership in service to their respective communities,” the member schools said in a release.
The long-standing Central Catholic League will simultaneously continue to exist with Watterson, DeSales, Hartley and Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School, which opted at this time not to join the new conference. The three Columbus schools in the OCAC will continue to schedule St. Charles in football once the new conference kicks off in the fall of 2026.
Columbus Bishop Ready High School, a longtime member of the CCL, joined the Central Buckeye League in 2023. Cristo Rey Columbus High School does not field a football team.
While CCL competition will continue in all other sports between Watterson, DeSales, Hartley and St. Charles, school administrators hope to expand the OCAC to include the other Ohio High School Athletic Association-sanctioned sports in the future.
In the meantime, anticipation is brewing for the new league despite its launch still being two years away.
“We’re really excited about this conference,” Hartley football coach Brad Burchfield said. “We’re going to be able to create new rivalries and experiences for our students with like-minded Catholic schools with historic traditions. This is going to be incredible.”
Competition will be fierce among the historically successful OCAC teams. The eight schools have combined for 29 state titles, 50 championship-game appearances and 200 playoff berths over the past 50 years, led by Cardinal Mooney with eight titles and St. Vincent-St. Mary with six. Cardinal Mooney has qualified for the postseason 32 times and DeSales is right behind at 30.
In 2023, all eight teams made the playoffs in Divisions II, III or IV. Watterson advanced to the Division III state final. Walsh Jesuit and Ursuline were regional finalists in Division II and III, respectively.
Hartley has experienced as much success as any of the schools in the past two decades under Burchfield. The Hawks boast an active streak of 14 consecutive playoff appearances and have won three state titles during his tenure.
Meanwhile, CCL rivals Watterson and DeSales have each played in a state championship game within the past four years.
Though the conference schedule will be daunting, games against high-caliber schools should be beneficial in the computer rankings that determine playoff qualifiers. A team could potentially finish in the middle or lower half of the conference standings and still make the postseason based on strength of schedule.
“When you look at the teams on the list from top to bottom and think of the history and the traditions and success of those programs over time, it’s pretty impressive,” DeSales coach Ryan Wiggins said. “It going to be a really good challenge. Each and every week you’ll be looking at either a great local game or a great statewide matchup. It’ll make for some exciting football. ”
The main driving force behind the new alliance of Catholic schools was to alleviate some of the challenges of scheduling games year after year.
A four-team CCL with only three league games left the schools with seven non-conference football games to schedule during the regular season. Finding opponents willing to play CCL teams, particularly later in the year when other schools were in the midst of their conference schedules, proved difficult.
That forced Hartley, DeSales or Watterson to regularly travel to various parts of the state and even out of state to play games. And some of those matchups have come against schools with enrollment two or three times larger.
“Now we’ve got schools that are very similar in size to us and very similar in numbers in their program,” DeSales athletic director Tom Neubert said. “I just feel better about sending my kids up to play these schools rather than a big Division I public high school.”
Five years ago, the CCL teams formed an alliance with Catholic schools from the Dayton area to play each other in football, but the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and the schools discontinued the series after that.
“To be honest, we’ve had discussions with about every diocese (about scheduling),” Neubert said.
Earlier this year, conversations began with administrators from the schools interested in joining the OCAC and the talks progressed rapidly.
“We had one Zoom meeting and one in person and worked it all out,” Neubert said. “We were done, and now we’re moving forward.”
One of the questions raised about the new conference is the amount of travel for students and families. Teams will likely be making at least one football trip to Youngstown and one to the Cleveland-Akron area each season.
But the athletic directors and coaches are quick to point out that their teams have traveled long distances for games in the past. Also, parents and athletes are accustomed making road trips to participate in club sports and camps.
“It’s nice to have a normal football schedule even though we’re traveling a little bit,” Watterson athletic director Doug Etgen said. “The problem was finding a week seven or nine game where you can’t find anybody. And now we’re good weeks four through 10.”
Having other Catholic schools with the same mission and values factored prominently into the discussions to create the new conference.
“We look forward to the rivalries on the football field,” Etgen said. “But then there’s the opportunity to share how we don things in our school buildings, how we do things with regard to our faith.”
Integrating other sports into the new conference may take some time, the ADs said. Scheduling midweek competition won’t be feasible because of the extended travel on school days.
“Where we’d like it to go is to become a full league with all sports,” said Neubert, who mentioned the possibility of creating other opportunities for students such as leadership conferences. “Logistically, that’s going to be tougher for us to iron out. Some sports are easier than others.
“I would like to think by 2027 we could have some things in place. Having a wrestling tournament or a golf tournament on a weekend is really easy. Individual sports are much easier than team sports to put something together. We’ll have to get creative with team sports.”
“I think it’s all going to work out,” Etgen said. “It’s all very exciting to think about.”
One opponent for Watterson, DeSales and Hartley that will require minimal travel for athletic events is St. Charles, which expressed its desire to keep the CCL intact after discussing whether to join the new conference.
“After consideration, we decided not to move in that direction at this time,” St. Charles principal Jim Lower wrote in a letter to the school community. “The other schools have assured us that the CCL will continue to exist. We will continue to compete against the other CCL member schools, and any changes to this format will come only after further discussions.”
CCL schools are scheduled to meet on Aug. 11.
“Any changes to this model will be shared with our St. Charles community,” Lower said. “We will continue to compete against high-level teams, and we remain committed to supporting our student-athletes, coaches and families of all sports.”
