Friday, November 8th, 2019

MAC approves bowling as a school sport

By Colin Foster
Midwest Athletic Conference programs played for an "unofficial" league bowling championship last year.
They'll get to play for an official one next season as the MAC announced that bowling has been approved as a school sport for the 2020-2021 year.
"We're excited," said Coldwater coach Rick Hartings, whose program has collected all seven of the MAC's bowling state titles (three boys, four girls). "We wanted this a long time ago and the timing just wasn't right. All those years that we tried, it just didn't make sense. But there are now so many schools where (bowling) is funded and it just makes sense. We kept asking them and they finally put it to a vote."
Since bowling became an OHSAA sport, teams from the MAC - Coldwater and St. Henry, in particular - have been a fixture at the state tournament. Timing was finally right to make it an official school sport, MAC Commissioner Don Kemper said.
"The participation requirement, in the bylaws, has always required at least seven Midwest Athletic Conference schools to field a full team for the sport to be considered for inclusion as a conference sport," wrote Kemper in a text message. "There had always been questions around what participation really meant. At some schools the bowling program was treated like a club sport, i.e., no financial support from the athletic department and no school transportation was provided. At others it was treated as a true school sport, i.e., fully supported by the athletic department and school transportation was provided.
"We redefined participation as 'Did the school pay for the team's inclusion in the OHSAA tournament the previous school year?' There were also concerns around Title IX and adding a boys sport without adding a girls sport," Kemper continued. "The number of boys and girls teams seem to have stabilized with bowling, and we currently have eight teams in boys bowling and seven teams in girls bowling. Everything seemed to come together and the Midwest Athletic Conference executive committee decided the time was right to include boys and girls bowling as conference sports for the 2020-2021 school year."
Up to this point, MAC bowling teams have played in the West Ohio High School Bowling conference, along with a number of affiliates from the Cross County Conference, Western Buckeye League and Shelby County League. The WBL has now been its own independent bowling league for three years. Remaining in the WOHSBC are eight MAC schools (Coldwater, Fort Recovery, Marion Local, Minster, New Bremen, Parkway, St. Henry and Versailles), along with Ansonia, Fort Loramie, Mississinawa Valley and Russia. After this season, the non-MAC schools are expected to form their own league.
Under the notion that approval might coming, MAC bowling coaches held an unofficial conference tournament last year. Kemper gave the green light to hold it again this year.
"We're going to do the same thing this year - it's going to be called the unofficial MAC standings. We're going to keep stats during the MAC matches and have separate standings outside of the West Ohio Bowling Conference," Hartings said. "Next year, it'll just mean a lot more."
Additional online story on this date
First class members learn the alphabet
CELINA - Inside the Mercer County District Library community room, a group of about 25 people sat patiently at tables, poring over notes and muttering in a language they've never spoken before. [More]
Subscriber and paid stories on this date
CELINA - As temperatures drop, Ohio's flu season begins, and local health professionals say people can take simple and easy steps to prevent getting the flu and stop its spread.
CELINA - Local farmers at Thursday's ag breakfast learned about some changes in the new farm bill, especially those concerning two USDA safety net programs - the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs.
The following area schools and organizations are hosting Veterans Day celebrations:

Celina
Celina Middle School will start off the school dis
2019 All-Midwest Athletic Conference Football Teams
Coaches' picks for the 2019 All-Midwest Athletic Conference Football Teams were revealed on Thursday.
Strong performance by Anna's Riley Huelskamp and Marion Local's Matt Everman earned them the highest honors. Coldwater's Shane Homan was honored, too.
NWOSSCA honors
Several area soccer players received honors by the Northwest Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association on Thursday for play on the field as well effort in the classroom.