The Blanchard Valley Conference is an Ohio High School Athletic Association affiliated athletic league located in Hancock, Hardin, Putnam, and Wood Counties in northwest Ohio. Its name derives from the Blanchard River, which runs through the area in which the schools are located. Findlay & Liberty-Benton, members of the Northern Lakes League, and Cory-Rawson, member of the Northwest Central Conference, are the only high schools in Hancock County that are a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association that aren't part of the BVC.
Current members
SchoolNicknameLocationEnrollment (Pre CB Males 2025)State FB Region (2025)ColorsTenurePrevious ConferenceAdaBulldogsAda1027:26 2024-Northwest ConferenceArcadiaRedskinsArcadia797:26 1922-noneArlingtonRed DevilsArlington597:26 1922-noneElmwoodRoyalsBloomdale1346:22 2023-Northern Buckeye ConferenceLeipsicVikingsLeipsic897:26 1966-2021 (fb)1971-2021 (all)2024- Northwest ConferenceMcCombPanthersMcComb727:26 1922-nonePandora-Gilboa1RocketsPandora807:26 1966- (fb)1971- (all)Putnam County (Present/non-football), Northwest Conference2, UNKNOWN League3RiverdaleFalconsMt. Blanchard1256:22 2014-North Central Conference Van BurenBlack KnightsVan Buren1286:22 1922-noneVanlueWildcatsVanlue25Non football member 1922- (all)1922-2022 (fb)none
Pandora-Gilboa is also a current member of the Putnam County League. 2.Charter Member 3.Need to check the league/conference name. P-G won conference title in another conference other than the BVC & NWC once.
Former members School Nickname Location Colors Year Joined Previous Conference Year Left Conference JoinedCory-RawsonHornetsRawson 1950none 2023 Northwest Central Hardin Northern Polar Bears Dola 1965 Hardin County 2014 Northwest Central Hopewell-Loudon Chieftains Bascom 2014 Midland 2019 Sandusky Bay ConferenceLiberty-BentonEaglesBenton Ridge 1922none2026Northern Lakes Mount Blanchard Purple Hurricanes Mount Blanchard 1922 none 1960 Hardin County Mount Cory Shamrocks Mount Cory 1922 none 1950 none (consolidatedinto Cory-Rawson)North BaltimoreTigersNorth Baltimore 2014-2023 Midland Athletic League 2023 Northwest Central Rawson Raiders Rawson 1922 none 1950 none (consolidatedinto Cory-Rawson) Westwood Warriors Rudolph unknown 1965 Lakeshore 1966 none (consolidatedinto Bowling Green)
League history The BVC's roots lie in the Hancock County League often known as the Little 9/8/7 League, which formed in 1922. Arcadia, Arlington, Liberty-Benton, McComb, Mount Blanchard, Mount Cory, Rawson, Van Buren, Vanlue were the founding members. Cory-Rawson was formed by the consolidation of Mount Cory and Rawson in 1950. The eight team lineup lasted for another decade, until Mount Blanchard (due to consolidate into Riverdale in 1962) joined the Hardin County League.
The remaining seven members decided to reorganize the league in 1965 and add other schools, forming the BVC. Hardin Northern, Leipsic (football only), and Westwood signed on to make the conference a 9 member/10 football member conference. When Westwood was absorbed by the Bowling Green City School District in 1966, Pandora-Gilboa replaced them in the league for the 1966–67 school year in football only. Leipsic and Pandora-Gilboa were both members of the Putnam County League for all non-football sports at this time.
Leipsic and Pandora-Gilboa were able to work out schedules with the PCL to be able to join the BVC in all sports, while keeping membership in both conferences, in 1971.
On April 19, 2012, Ada High School of the Northwest Conference, along with Calvert, Hopewell-Loudon, and North Baltimore of the Midland Athletic League made pitches to join the BVC after answering a letter of interest made in February 2012.
On May 21, 2012, the BVC extended invitations to Hopewell-Loudon and North Baltimore with the following report coming from the Findlay Courier:
North Baltimore accepted the BVC's invitation on June 19, 2012, and Hopewell-Loudon did the same a day later. Both schools joined for the 2014–15 season.
In April 2013, BVC President Traci Conley indicated the BVC wanted to expand to 14 members and first sent an invitation to Riverdale High School. Riverdale accepted the invitation on April 22, 2013, which meant the BVC wanted to pursue a 14th member to join the league. Riverdale's membership in the N10 was terminated shortly thereafter, and they would likely not have joined the BVC until 2015–16 at the earliest, but with Hardin Northern dropping football in 2013, Riverdale was admitted for all sports beginning in 2014.http://www.thecourier.com/Issues/2013/Aug/03/ar_sports_080313_story1.asp?d=080313_story1,2013,Aug,03&c=s
This expansion of the conference of the latest 3 schools was controversial, and charged with nickname the "Liberty-Benton Membership-Extension Addition" because it was an obvious attempt by the school to balance average school enrollment figures for Liberty-Benton to justify continuing their membership in the conference. Supporting evidence of this nickname comes from Liberty-Benton officials commenting on spectator and media statements of the school needing to apply for a new conference because of the school is placed in Division V for football as all other schools in the conference were only in Division VII. School Officials said the school would have to look for a new conference by 2016 if the expansion did not pass.
In May 2013, Upper Scioto Valley publicly indicated that they were interested in joining the BVC as its 14th member, since they felt that its league, the Northwest Central Conference was no longer stable.
The NWCC extended an invitation to Hardin Northern in late 2013, which also required a response by March 1, 2014. After suspending Hardin Northern from league play in football from 2013 to 2015, the BVC voted 9-1 (HN the lone dissenting vote) to refuse a guarantee that Hardin Northern would return to the league for that sport. Hardin Northern To Decide Athletic Conference Future. The Senior Reports This pressure caused Hardin Northern's school board to decide on February 19, 2014, to withdraw from the BVC and apply to the NWCC for membership. The NWCC accepted Hardin Northern as a full member for 2014–15 on March 19, 2014, with football joining in 2015–16.
Hopewell-Loudon announced in August 2017 that they would leave the BVC for the Sandusky Bay Conference in the 2019–2020 school year after being offered an invitation to replace Shelby.
In August 2020, Elmwood High School of the Northern Buckeye Conference announced they had received a formal invitation from the BVC and were seriously looking at the opportunity. Following a school board meeting on February 8, 2021, multiple sources confirmed that Elmwood had unanimously approved to leave the NBC and join the BVC for the 2023–2024 school year or sooner.
At a board meeting on March 18, 2021, Cory-Rawson voted to leave the BVC for the Northwest Central Conference (NWCC) in 2023.
In August 2021, North Baltimore announced that their football team would go independent beginning with the 2022 season but remain in the BVC for the rest of their sports. This however, would change on Nov. 2, 2021 when North Baltimore announced they would join the NWCC fully for the 2023–24 school year.
Liberty-Benton and the BVC announced in May 2022 that the Eagles would be leaving the league after the 2025–2026 school year, citing the district's student enrollment, competitive accomplishment and athletic facilities as reasons for the decision. At the time of the announcement, Liberty-Benton did not indicate if they had another league they were invited to join or to consider for membership.
The BVC Governing Board voted on December 16, 2022, to remove Vanlue's football team from the conference beginning with the 2023–24 school year. Vanlue intends to continue fielding an 11-man football team, but has no league affiliation yet going forward.
On April 26, 2023, the school board at Ada voted to accept the BVC's invitation to join the league. No timeframe had initially been set for when the Bulldogs would switch conferences, but it was reported in June 2023 that they would join the BVC for the 2024–25 school year.
During a special board meeting held on Sunday, May 21, 2023, the Leipsic school board voted to rejoin the BVC. Similar to Ada, a timeframe for returning to their old league was not initially established, but they are aiming to get in the same time as Ada.
Liberty-Benton accepted an invitation on January 27, 2025, to join the Northern Lakes League as a member of the Cardinal Division beginning in the 2026-27 school year.
Enrollment The current enrollments of the nine BVC schools. School Boys Enrollment 2017 Girls Enrollment 2017 Total Enrollment 2017 Arcadia 65 81 146 Arlington 71 78 149 Elmwood Liberty-Benton 140 149289 McComb 94 78 172 Pandora-Gilboa 64 57 121 Riverdale 112 94 206 Van Buren 147 116 263 Vanlue 30 24 54
Football champions Year Champions 1965 Cory-Rawson, McComb 1966 McComb 1967 McComb 1968 Cory Rawson (State Champs - unscored upon) 1969 McComb 1970 Cory-Rawson, Arlington, McComb 1971 Cory-Rawson, McComb 1972 Arlington 1973 Cory-Rawson 1974 Liberty-Benton 1975 Arlington, Leipsic 1976 Arlington 1977 LB 1978 Liberty-Benton 1979 Arlington 1980 Pandora-Gilboa, Cory-Rawson, McComb 1981 Leipsic 1982 McComb (State Champions) 1983 McComb 1984 McComb 1985 McComb 1986 Arlington, McComb 1987 Arlington 1988 Van Buren 1989 Van Buren 1990McComb 1991 Van Buren, McComb 1992 Cory-Rawson 1993 Hardin Northern, McComb 1994 Hardin Northern, Leipsic 1995 Hardin Northern 1996 Hardin Northern 1997 Hardin Northern 1998 Pandora-Gilboa, Hardin Northern 1999 Pandora-Gilboa 2000 McComb 2001 McComb 2002 Hardin Northern 2003 Cory-Rawson, Hardin Northern 2004 Liberty-Benton 2005 Hardin Northern 2006 Liberty-Benton 2007 Liberty-Benton 2008 Liberty-Benton 2009 Leipsic 2010 McComb 2011 Leipsic 2012 McComb 2013 Liberty-Benton 2014 Blanchard: Liberty-Benton, Valley: Van Buren 2015 Blanchard:McComb, Valley: Van Buren 2016 McComb 2017 Liberty-Benton, McComb 2018 Pandora-Gilboa 2019 Liberty-Benton 2020 Liberty-Benton 2021 McComb 2022 McComb 2023 Liberty-Benton 2024 Liberty-Benton
References
See also Ohio High School Athletic Conferences