Scott Welker talks Muskingum Valley League expansion

DRESDEN, Ohio – Big changes are coming to one of Ohio’s oldest high school athletic conferences.

Last week it was announced that the Muskingum Valley League will be expanding from nine teams to 12 starting during the 2020-2021 academic year. Coshocton, River View, and Meadowbrook are the three schools who were selected to join the league.

MVL commissioner Scott Welker said the league formed an expansion committee in 2010 to look into the possibility of adding schools. He said he thinks they found three perfect schools.

“The nice thing is that we are taking in three communities that are just like us. We have communities within our league that are awesome. You look at the Crooksville and New Lex’s of the world and they are great places,” said Welker.

This means the league, which was founded in 1938, will be split into two six-team divisions for team sports such as football, basketball, softball, and baseball. The large schools division will include Tri-Valley, Sheridan, Maysville, Philo, John Glenn, and River View. The small school division will have West Muskingum, Morgan, Coshocton, Meadowbrook, New Lexington, and Crooksville. Welker said they are still figuring out what this will mean for sports such as wrestling, golf, and track.

For football each team will play their five divisional games and then have two crossover games. This also means that each division, which have not been given names yet, will crown their own champion.

Welker said this is a change that needed to happen.

“I think we’d be lying if we said it wasn’t needed. Because there were some safety issues especially with football. With your big football schools and some of your smaller schools it became more of a safety issue,” said Welker.

While three teams were admitted into the league, there were several who were denied entrance.

“We’ve had Logan, Rosecrans, and Zanesville in the past have all shown interest. The committee has really put their teeth in and thought what would be best for the league. And at this point we thought these three would be the best for us,” said Welker

Welker said the all the teams are on a 10-year agreement and that at this moment the league is content with have 12 teams.