High school football camps are under way in the area, and it's time to close the books on schedule changes for this year-with one last look. Today's focus is on Eastern Cuyahoga County.
BENEDICTINE (Div.3, NCL Blue)-The Bengals will have a season of change this season. A new head coach takes the helm this year, and Benedictine will participate in a conference for the first time since the 1971 season, their last year in the Senate Athletic Conference. Half of the schedule will change also, with Chardon, Fremont Ross, St. Edward, Youngstown Mooney, and Louisville Aquinas coming off the slate. Replacing them will be Boardman, Akron Hoban (Blue Division game), Bedford, Holy Name (NCL crossover), and Padua (Blue Division game). Lake Catholic, NDCL, and Walsh Jesuit stay on as Blue Division opponents. The Bengals hope their fortunes change, as well. Benedictine appeared in the Division 3 state championship game three seasons in a row (2002-2004), winning the latter two. Since then, they have not had a winning season, going 18-42.
BRUSH (Div.1, NOC Lake)-The Arcs will trade Collinwood, Cuyahoga Falls, and North Royalton for Madison, Twinsburg, and Lakewood this season. Brush has high hopes for this season, and hopes to attain the school's first winning mark since 2005. That season the Arcs went 7-3 and qualified for the playoffs for the only time in school history.
CHAGRIN FALLS (Div.4, CVC Chagrin)-The Tigers are coming off back-to-back appearances in the Division 3 state final, and find themselves dropping to Division 4 this season. Other than that, not much will change-the same 10 teams are on the schedule as last year. One has to go back to 1996 to find the last time that Chagrin Falls had a losing season (2-8).
EUCLID (Div.1, LEL)-The Panthers say goodbye to Strongsville and South, and hello to Canton GlenOak and Lorain. The Mentor game becomes a non-conference affair for the first time since 1997. Euclid was 4-6 last season, but that was just the 3rd non-winning season in the last 29 years for the Panthers.
GILMOUR (Div.5, Independent)-The Lancers will see half of their scheduled opponents turned over from last year. Gone are Peninsula Woodridge, Linsly Academy (WV), Gibsonburg, Oregon Cardinal Stritch, and Geneva. In for this year are Tusarawas Central Catholic, Grand Valley, Trinity, Conneaut, and VASJ. Gilmour has had back-to-back 2-8 seasons, but had 7 consecutive winning seasons before that.
MAYFIELD (Div.1, NOC River)-The Wildcats won't face Bedford, Solon, Strongsville, Brunswick, or Nordonia this season. They will take on newcomers Mentor (for the first time since 1992), Stow, North Royalton, Hudson, and Cuyahoga Falls. The winning season streak for Mayfield stands at 6, since finishing 4-6 in 2004.
ORANGE (Div.3, CVC Chagrin)-The Lions pick up Kirtland as a Week 3 opponent this year in a CVC crossover. Orange has not had a winning season since 1999 (6-4).
RICHMOND HTS. (Div.6, CVC Metro)-The Spartans will not play Morral Ridgedale or Edgewood this year, facing Oberlin and Berkshire instead. Richmond Hts was winless the last 2 seasons, but went 6-4 as recently as 2008.
UNIVERSITY (Div.3, PAC)-The Preppers will enter their first football season as a conference member (unless you count the Inter-State Prep League), with a slew of returning players. They'll drop Fremont Ross, Lincoln-West, WRA, Akron SVSM, and Jefferson from the schedule and replace them with new league opponents Madison, Lakeside, Riverside, North, and Chardon. South and Geneva remain on the schedule from last year and will become conference foes.
VASJ (Div.6, NCL White)-The Vikings' enrollment is the smallest it has been, probably ever. The school was Division 1 in 1987. Nevertheless, the spirit of the Columbia Blue & Red lives on. VASJ will replace Chardon, NDCL, and Elyria Catholic with new NCL White foes Warren JFK and Holy Name, along with nearby Gilmour. The Vikings will play 5 Saturday afternoon games this year-3 are home games against teams that have to travel a great distance, and two are road games. Three home games will be played on the more traditional Saturday night under the lights at Sparky DiBiasio, with one Saturday night and one Friday night game on the road.
There are just 3 matchups involving these 10 teams facing each other.
Week 6-Mayfield vs. Brush
Week 9-Chagrin Falls vs.Orange
Week 10-VASJ vs. Gilmour
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