Sports fans everywhere have heard of the "coaching carousel."
It's the familar routine where coaches at the collegiate and professsional level change their teams so often it can make one's head spin.
There's another carnival ride which has long befuddled local sports fans..
It's the "league carousel" -- and several Record Publishing Co. area teams look due for another spin.
Nordonia's move from the Northeast Ohio Conference to the Suburban League -- and the thwarted move by Cuyhoga Falls, Hudson and Stow-Munroe Falls to the SL -- shows the carousel music is firing up once again.
Less than two years into its formation, the NOC appears to be coming apart at the seams.
While Nordonia's move to the SL was partially spurred by the rumblings for change coming from Falls, Stow and Hudson, changing conferences is nothing new for the Knights.
Since 1990, Nordonia has been a member of the Metro League, the Greater Cleveland Conference, the Western Reserve Conference North Division, the consolidated Western Reserve Conference and the NOC.
It's almost to the point where a Nordonia student can expect to switch conferences at least once during their high school career.
Meanwhile, the rhetoric coming from Cuyahoga Falls and Stow-Munroe Falls makes it seem that, if the two schools could jump ship from the NOC tomorrow, they would.
I understand the travel issues these schools face within the NOC.
That said, everyone in the NOC knew what they were in for when they joined the league.
About two years ago, when I asked Stow-Munroe Falls athletic director Cyle Feldman about the formation of the NOC, he said travel was a concern, but that league had worked hard on such issues and that he was happy to have "a level-playing field" in the NOC's division system.
Now, Feldman says the system for switching divisions is "one of the leagues major flaws" and seems determined to pull Stow out of the NOC -- even if the Suburban League doesn't want it.
Feldman said he's trying to get a new league started involving Stow, Hudson, Cuyahoga Falls, Twinsburg, and Barberton, who recently petitioned to leave the Suburban. Nordonia was also included in those early discussions.
In terms of geography and competitiveness, Feldman's proposed league makes sense. It would bring together every Division I football school in Summit County, except Nordonia and Green. Bring in Wadsworth and Green, and the new leauge just might have a shot stability.
Good luck, though, getting Wadsworth to leave the Suburban Leauge, where the Grizzlies are a force in nearly every spot. Green doesn't seem anxious to evacuate, either.
There is plenty of precedence showing huge high school conferences in Ohio can work.
The Ohio Capital Conference around Columbus will expand to 32 schools in four divisions this fall. While there has been frequent realignment, the league's has been going strong since 1968.
Then, there's the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference. It's the largest high school conference in the country, has been going since 1946 and includes 46 schools -- spread across two states.
Why is it that when the opportunity to build something like that in Northeast Ohio comes up, its seems the schools can't play nice together?
Schools usually switch leagues due to changes in school size and competitiveness.
School size and competitiveness evolve over years and decades.
If the school is too small or big or it has problems competing in a league, it looks to switch leagues.
This is the definition of a vicious circle.
When it was first formed, the NOC seemed like a way to break that circle when it first formed.
Now, it seems more likely it will circle into oblivion -- and its members will continue to circle on that league carousel in a search for the perfect conference.
E-mail: mleonard@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3113