High school sports: Ross, Edgewood announce plans to switch leagues

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

The Southwestern Buckeye League is set to add Edgewood and Ross next year.

Those schools announced Tuesday afternoon they will join the SWBL for the 2023-24 school year and begin immediately to form the details of the move, which include the timeline, divisional alignment and scheduling details.

Both are currently members of the Southwest Ohio Conference.

Ross joined the SWOC in 2012-13 after more than three decades in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference.

The Rams put together a banner sports year in 2020-21 with SWOC championships in football, boys basketball, boys and girls soccer, wrestling and a co-championship in softball.

They won boys and girls soccer again last fall while finishing second in the league in football.

Edgewood, which had been in the FAVC since 2006 when it joined the SWOC the same year as Ross, is the reigning football champ and took home titles in girls volleyball, girls basketball, softball and boys track last year.

The SWBL began in 1944 but has undergone many changes.

Most recently, it shrank to 10 teams — Bellbrook, Franklin, Monroe, Oakwood, Waynesville, Brookville, Carlisle, Eaton, Madison and Valley View — for this school year following the exit of Dixie, Milton-Union, Northridge and Preble Shawnee. Dixie and Preble Shawnee are now in the Western Ohio Athletic Conference. Milton-Union and Northridge compete in the Three Rivers Conference.

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