
West Holmes High School is leaving the Ohio Cardinal Conference to join the Principals Athletic Conference starting in the 2028-29 school year. Cloverleaf High School will also join as a new member.
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Over recent years at both the college and high school levels, conference realignment has been a main topic of conversation for many schools and it has escalated into actual action for one Wayne County school.
West Holmes High School will be the latest of schools across Northeast Ohio to announce that they will be switching conferences.
West Holmes will be leaving the Ohio Cardinal Conference, which they have been a member of since the inception of the league in fall of 2003, to join the Principals Athletic Conference starting in the 2028-29 academic/athletic school year.
Cloverleaf High School, who is leaving the Metro Athletic Conference, announced that they will be joining West Holmes as the two new additions to the Principals Athletic Conference.
The Principals Athletic Conference made the official announcement on March 14.
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So, why is West Holmes leaving the seven-team conference in the OCC to join the PAC?
"This was a collaborative process involving our School Board, Administration, Athletic Department and our Athletic Council (head coaches) with a focus on what’s best for our students," West Holmes Local Schools Superintendent Eric Jurkovic said. "This has been something we’ve thoughtfully evaluated over time, to ensure we’re making the right long-term decision for our district."
Gary Woods, the Principals Athletic Conference Commissioner, said that West Holmes has had interest in joining the PAC for about a year and when two PAC schools in Tuslaw and Fairless announced they were leaving to become member schools of the Northeast Senate League, the discussions began to pick up.
"We know that West Holmes has had interest for over a year. When Tuslaw and Fairless announced that they were leaving the PAC, it turned up," Woods said. "That happened in February at our PAC meeting. We had a meeting with the other ADs that showed interest. We notified them and West Holmes. West Holmes said they were definitely interested. They submitted a letter of interest. We set up kind of an interview to get to know each other. We asked questions of them and they asked questions of us.
"We slept on it for a week and then took a vote. It was a 6-0 vote. After that we offered to give them membership for the 2028-29 season when Tuslaw and Fairless are out of the league."
West Holmes High School is switching conferences as part of a broader trend of conference realignment among schools in Northeast Ohio.
West Holmes will officially join the Principals Athletic Conference in the 2028-29 academic/athletic school year.
West Holmes is leaving the Ohio Cardinal Conference, where they have been a member since its inception in 2003.
Cloverleaf High School is also joining the Principals Athletic Conference alongside West Holmes.


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West Holmes Lynn Cline fights to break the grasp of Wooster's Anthony Wineman. The Knights will began competing in the Principals Athletic Conference in the 2028-29 academic/athletic school year.
Woods says that in case of any future realignment within the league, the PAC had always planned to stay at eight schools, which will still stand when West Holmes and Cloverleaf join in 2028. He added that "it seems to work best for football, so you don't have an open date rotating during the season."
As far as how talks first initiated, Woods says it was between West Holmes and Triway, one of the current schools in the PAC.
"Actually, it was Justin McDowell (Triway's Athletic Director), who is pretty good friends with Adam Brately, the AD at West Holmes," Woods said. "They've talked about this for awhile. West Holmes is starting to lose enrollment and they became the smallest school in the OCC. They were looking to try and improve their situation and that way at the same time get themselves in a competitive league."
With student enrollment at high schools across Ohio shrinking, Jurkovic said that finding a conference that more suits the size and enrollment of West Holmes was a priority.
"We have to be forward-thinking. As enrollment shifts, it’s important we align with schools of similar size so we can sustain strong programs long-term," he said.
"We felt they were a good fit both academically and athletically. Very similar school to our schools. They've had good volleyball teams. They've had good football teams. Triway has played them in their opening game for years now in football. That was their familiarity," said Woods, who compared league membership to being in a marriage. "Their size wasn't a major factor because they've loss a tremendous amount of enrollment like everyone else in Ohio has over the years.
"I was the AD at Northwestern and one year we graduated 287 kids. Last year, I think they graduated 175. The enrollment trend is declining and they became a small school in the OCC."
West Holmes football has been one of the school's top sports over the years.
With West Holmes — located in Millersburg — in East Holmes County and not much distance apart from Wayne County schools in the PAC like Triway and Orrville, the close proximity was also a key factor in switching conferences.
"Travel logistics are consistently a topic of discussion, particularly with our location, even within the OCC, resulting in some lengthy journeys," Jurkovic said.
"That has some impact on it. The fact that they became close geographically to Triway and Orrville, it helps eliminate a little bit of travel," Woods explained. "We looked at several schools. Fairless and Tuslaw moving really put the kibosh on the leagues. The EBC (Eastern Buckeye Conference) loss three of its members (Minerva, Marlington, Carrollton), so they went down to four teams. The IVC (Inter Valley Conference) loss three members in Tusky Valley, Claymont and Sandy Valley. When the dominos starting falling, they started falling."
In 2028, West Holmes, Triway, Orrville, Canton South, Cloverleaf, Coventry, Akron Manchester and Northwest are expected to be the eight member schools that make up the PAC.
Twitter/X: @JamesSimpsonII
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Inside why West Holmes is leaving the Ohio Cardinal Conference