The Western Reserve Conference is an OHSAA athletics conference that began with the 2015-16 school year.[1] [2] The name is resurrected from three previous incarnations that most recently folded in 2007 when the Northeast Ohio Conference was created.
| School | Nickname | Location | Colors | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chardon | Hilltoppers | Chardon, Ohio | Red & Black | Public |
| Eastlake North | Rangers | Eastlake, Ohio | Orange & Black | Public |
| Kenston | Bombers | Bainbridge Twp, Ohio | Blue & White | Public |
| Mayfield | Wildcats | Mayfield Village, Ohio | Green & White | Public |
| Riverside | Beavers | Painesville Township, Ohio | Black & Gold | Public |
| Willoughby South | Rebels | Willoughby, Ohio | Columbia Blue & Gray | Public |
The conference is named after the Connecticut Western Reserve, which historically included most of Northeast Ohio. There have been three previous athletic conferences in the region that used the name "Western Reserve". The first existed from 1919 to 1948, a second was formed in 1948 and existed until 1968, and a third conference was founded in 1996 and functioned until 2007.
The first athletic conference to use the name "Western Reserve" was founded in 1919 as the Trolley League as its members were all located along the interurban trolley line. Around 1931, the league became known as the Western Reserve League after several additional schools joined and the trolley line itself was abandoned. The conference disbanded in 1948 after its membership had been reduced to just five schools a few years prior.[3]
The second conference to use the Western Reserve name started as the Lake County League in the early 1920s. The conference was renamed the Western Reserve Conference in 1948 and played 20 more years before it folded in 1968.
A third Western Reserve Conference was formed in 1996, as the five remaining schools from the Metro League merged with five schools from the Chagrin Valley Conference. The conference was divided into north and south divisions with the former CVC schools in the north and the former Metro League schools in the south. Additional members were added to create two six-team divisions. The divisions were eliminated in 2005 after four schools left the conference. Two years later, this version of the WRC combined with the Pioneer Conference to become the Northeast Ohio Conference.
| Western Reserve Conference Divisions (1996-2005, unless noted) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Brush (1998-2005) | Barberton | ||
| Kenston | Cuyahoga Falls | ||
| Mayfield (1998-2005) | Hudson (1997-2005) | ||
| Nordonia (1997-2005) | Kent Roosevelt | ||
| Orange (1996-1998) | Ravenna | ||
| Solon | Stow-Munroe Falls | ||
| Twinsburg | |||
| West Geauga (1996-1998) | |||