Last week was a busy week for Leipsic High as they left an athletic conference on Monday and made arrangements to join another on conference by Thursday. The Vikings will continue to be a member of the Putnam County League.
Blanchard Valley Conference
Leipsic voted early last week to leave the Blanchard Valley Conference. The Viking had been football only members since 1965 and whole league members since 1971. Currently the BVC is an 11 team league with 8 teams in Hancock County, 2 in Putnam and 1 in Wood. Leipsic will leave the BVC after the 2021-22 season. At the time Leipsic indicated that they were looking at a number of options including starting a new league.
The BVC has been a conference in flux. After having no changes in the conference lineup since 1971 when Leipsic and Pandora were added as whole league members. The league started a series of changes in 2014 when Hardin Northern left the league to join the NorthWest Central Conference. Riverdale, North Baltimore, and Hopewell Loudon were added in 2014. Hopewell Loudon left the league in 2019 to join the Sandusky Bay Conference.
Currently BVC members:
Arcadia
Arlington
Cory Rawson
Liberty Benton
McComb
Van Buren
Vanlue
Riverdale
North Baltimore
Leipsic
Pandora Gilboa
Northwest Conference
By the end of the week Leipsic was approved to enter the Northwest Conference (pending Leipsic Board of Education vote) in the 2022-23 season. The Northwest Conference was established in 1947 and has seen teams join and leave throughout the years although there was a period of conference stability from 1970 to 2001. An opening in the NWC when Paulding (a member since 1967) left the conference to join the Green Meadow Conference in 2022-2023.
Current NWC Members:
Ada
Allen East
Bluffton
Columbus Grove
Crestview
Delphos Jefferson
Lincolnview (non football)
Paulding
Spencerville
–Mike Jones, Sportswriter
