By Garth Shanklin
Sports Editor

The Southern Buckeye Athletic and Academic Conference voted to add girls’ golf and boys and girls’ bowling as sports for the 2017-2018 school year last week.

Clinton Massie, East Clinton and Wilmington are set to join the league that same year in all sports, with Fayetteville joining in football only. The new membership is what sparked the discussion to add the sports, according to New Richmond athletic director Doug Foote.

“The majority of it came about because of Clinton Massie, Wilmington and East Clinton coming into the league,” Foote said. “They had those sports, and if we weren’t able to add them they were going to have to stay with those two sports in their old league, and that makes it tough when you have split leagues like that.”

Currently, Goshen, Amelia and Norwood sponsor bowling, but with Norwood joining the Miami Valley Conference and Amelia merging with Glen Este, the Warriors were the only school left in the conference that sponsored the program. According to Foote, four schools are needed to have divisions, and with East Clinton adding the sport as well, the conference hopes to have a total of six schools participating in the sport next year.

“We’re hoping that we can add it and Western Brown will add it with Goshen,” Foote said. “That one’s a little more unsure yet, it’s still in the infant stages. The biggest thing is finding coaches and finding bowling alleys that’ll let you come in to play. Western Brown and Georgetown have it a little bit easier than what we do because there’s a bowling alley right in Georgetown and they’re both going to be able to use it.”

Goshen Head Coach Shirley Reynolds said adding the sport would be extremely beneficial to the Warriors’ scheduling. As an independent, the Warriors have to fill their own schedule, which can be easier for teams already in conferences.

“You’re allowed to have 24 matches counting two tournaments,” Reynolds said. “If they walk in with 18 or 19 matches, they can fill their schedule in like five or 10 minutes.”

Reynolds does her scheduling for the season at the Greater Cincinnati Coaches’ meeting in October, where she has to work the room and talk to other coaches at the meeting to find matches.

“I have to work harder to get my own matches,” Reynolds said. “It’d be nice to get my own schedule in the mail and not have to worry about it like the rest of the schools.”

Scheduling is also a benefit for girls’ golf programs, like the one New Richmond started this season. A first-year program going up against the likes of Milford and Turpin on a consistent basis is not ideal, but that’s the situation the team was in this season.

“It really helps with scheduling,” Foote said. “It gives you people to compete against that are as like-minded as you are. It allows you to add a tournament like the boys’ have. They play four nine-holes and then an 18-hole championship day, and we’re going to have that with the girls’ program. You have a built-in schedule with that, and you don’t have to play Milford, Turpin and some of those schools. You can play schools closer to what you are.”

The tournament is a bonus for Clermont Northeastern head coach Brandon Hoeppner, who likes having something on the line for his team to play for.

“I think playing in matches on a daily basis when it really doesn’t mean anything makes it monotonous,” Hoeppner said. “Playing with something on the line will be pretty big of value for us. We’re going to have a pretty good team next year, so having more pressure on the girls when it’s sectional and district time can only be a good thing.”

Clermont Northeastern actually is a member of the Cincinnati Girls’ Golf Conference along with several other schools, such as McNicholas. Hoeppner said the plan is to play schools from both conferences.

“We had a really good time with them, we’re going to try to play them both,” Hoeppner said. “It’s more experience. Being Division II, we don’t get a lot of experience to play teams like the Division I schools, hopefully this helps that.”

Hoeppner added the team has been hoping for the league to add girls’ golf for a while, and he’s happy it finally happened.

“We’ve had a girls team for three years now and we’ve asked the SBAAC to be represented, and with no other teams to play it was hard,” Hoeppner said. “We’re pretty excited.”

Wilmington and Clinton Massie sponsor other sports as well, such as lacrosse and swimming. Neither of those sports were considered for addition, according to Foote.

“Wilmington and Clinton Massie have swimming, but that is one sport that nobody else in our league has been able to get going,” Foote said. “That’s one of the reasons we went into the Miami Valley Conference. There wasn’t any talk on it. Right now, lacrosse is one of those sports that’s way out there for anyone in our league to do. It’s such an expensive sport and we’re not even close to that conversation yet.”