Willard officially accepts N10 invitation

WILLARD — The timing couldn't have been any better. With the Sandusky Bay Conference in yet another state of flux, an invitation to another league proved too good to pass up for the Willard City Schools' athletic programs. The Northern 10 Athletic Conference — by a vote of league superintendents — invited six schools, which included Willard, to join its league Feb. 25. The invite came just two weeks after 10 current SBC Lake and Bay Division schools opted to withdraw from that league. The Willard Board of Education voted Monday to accept the N10 invitation, and will join the league prior to the start of the 2026-27 school year. "It was something we've been eying for quite a while, but that opportunity wasn't there," Willard High School athletic director Joe Crawford said. "Really, it was fortuitous timing with the SBC looking like the next year was going to be the last of the status quo. There were a lot of schools looking to go in different directions. So really, the timing just worked." Other schools invited included Hopewell-Loudon, Lucas, New Riegel, Old Fort and Tiffin Calvert. For football — every athletic department's main money driver — Willard is currently in the SBC River Division along with Hopewell and Calvert. In basketball and other sports, the Crimson Flashes are members of the SBC Bay Division. Among the other invited schools for the N10 proposal, New Riegel and Old Fort — who do not field football teams — are also currently in the SBC River Division. Though not confirmed, one proposal has also shown the N10 expanding to a two-division format. One division would include Lucas and Willard, along with current members Buckeye Central, Bucyrus, Colonel Crawford, and Wynford. The other six-team division would include Calvert, Carey, Hopewell, Mohawk, Seneca East and Upper Sandusky. Pending acceptance by each school, a formal announcement by the N10 will be released with additional details regarding the alignment. Crawford echoed that sentiment, and noted nothing has been decided as far as divisions and the league format as a whole. "We really just got started on those conversations," he said. "The first thing was for the superintendents and principals to do their thing and figure out if this was viable and could work. We just received permissions as athletic directors to meet. Now we just started putting together the templates. You at least want to be two years out with schedules for finding officials." As for the league switch as a whole, from a travel perspective, the decision was a no-brainer for Willard. In the Bay Division, Willard was making trips to Edison (24 miles), Huron (30 miles), Margaretta (28 miles), Port Clinton (43 miles) and Vermilion (40 miles). That is an average distance of 33 miles one way. In the River Division for football, the distances included Calvert (26 miles), Gibsonburg (49 miles), Hopewell (31 miles), Lakota (43 miles), Margaretta (28 miles) and Woodmore (55 miles) for an average trip of 38.6 miles. Moving forward, Northwood (69 miles) is also joining the River. Applying the same one-way trips to current N10 schools, Willard is looking at an average distance of 26.5 miles to Bucyrus (25 miles), Buckeye Central (15 miles), Carey (42 miles) Colonel Crawford (23 miles), Mohawk (28 miles), Seneca East (11 miles), Upper Sandusky (39 miles) and Wynford (29 miles). Four of those trips are as close as Willard's current closest road game in the SBC Bay. "Travel-wise, the N10 is far better for our high school and middle school sports," Crawford said. "Teams keep getting added, and we are the southern-most team in the SBC. We're going to Port Clinton and Vermilion, and we used to go to Oak Harbor." Willard was in the Northern Ohio League from the 1944-45 school year through the 2016-17 school year, when the league disbanded after six of the seven members joined the SBC. From 1945-2002, both Willard and N10 member Bucyrus were regular opponents in the NOL. The same goes for Upper Sandusky, which was in the NOL from 1945-2011. Further, the Flashes have a long history as non-league opponents with the majority of the N10. Just this past winter, Willard played Carey, Upper Sandusky and possible future member Lucas in boys basketball. In girls hoops, the Flashes also took on Upper, Buckeye Central, Seneca East and Colonel Crawford. "From a historical standpoint, you can't be down here near this Route 30 corridor and not see a lot of the same people from most of those schools on a daily basis," Crawford said. "It's the same area of people. It was definitely attractive. "Obviously things have changed a lot over the past 15 or 20 years with the old Northern Ohio League and the size of schools. But we already have a lot of good relationships with the majority of the N10 schools." The NOL remained the same eight schools from 1954-2002 with Bellevue, Bucyrus, Galion, Norwalk, Tiffin Columbian, Shelby, Willard and Upper Sandusky. Fostoria replaced Bucyrus after the 2001-02 school year. After the 2010-11 school year, Fostoria went to the Northern Buckeye Conference, while Galion and Upper Sandusky went to the North Central Conference, which later became the N10 after the 2013-14 school year. Sandusky then joined the NOL after 2011, and Ontario came in two years later. The last major shakeup came when six of the NOL schools — minus Ontario — were invited and accepted the invitation to the SBC. Ontario went to the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference, and were joined by Shelby one year later. The Whippets and Crimson Flashes are big rivals and continue to play in nearly every sport. Prior to the fall of 2017, the SBC went to its current three-division format with the addition of the former NOL schools. But in mid-February, the 10 Lake and Bay schools for football then voted to withdraw from the SBC following the same 2026-27 school year timeline. As an AD, Crawford acknowledges football will always be the main financial sport that drives most decisions. But the move to the N10 goes way beyond football. "As far as that, it's no secret, the SBC had a lot of schools, and football drove a lot of stuff," he said. "And that's just the way it is. But for us, the N10 travel, with the attendance and the way these schools support their teams was very appealing. "We've seen that these schools travel well, especially over the years when we've hosted tournament basketball games," Crawford added. "We're very excited for the atmospheres and everything that can come with that."