The Northwest Ohio Athletic League (NWOAL) is a high school sports league in the U.S. state of
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. Beginning in 1926, it is officially the oldest athletic league in the state of Ohio. The league sponsors many sports, including:
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
, boys & girls
cross country,
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
, boys & girls
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
,
wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
,
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
, boys & girls
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
,
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
,
softball
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...
, and boys & girls
track & field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
. The average school enrollment ranges from 250 to 450 students making it a small to mid-size school league. The NWOAL members have won a total of 26 team state championships.
Current members
Affiliate member
Former members
League history
1920s
*The NWOAL began competition in 1926 with charter members Bryan, Delta, Liberty Center, Montpelier, Napoleon, and Wauseon. The inaugural sports of competition are football, boys basketball, and track.
*A dissatisfied Delta left in 1931 and was replaced by Defiance.
1950s
*Baseball and golf are offered as sports for league competition in the 1953–54 school year.
*Defiance was voted out of the league in 1954 for having an enrollment over twice the average of the smaller schools and for being dominant in league titles. They left at the end of the 1954–55 school year.
*Fairview and Paulding apply and are denied league membership in the 50s.
*Swanton and Delta are invited to join and enter the NWOAL in 1957 after a tenure in the Maumee Valley League, this was Delta's second entry into the league.
*Archbold is also invited at the same time and joins in 1960.
*Wrestling becomes a league sport for the 1959–60 school year.
*Ottawa Hills was considered for membership in 1959, but they never officially joined the NWOAL. It was around this time that it became obvious that the smaller schools were not satisfied with the dominance Napoleon (and to a lesser extent, Bryan) were displaying in acquiring all-sports crowns.
1960s
*In spring 1968, Defiance re-applied and was denied admission for NWOAL membership, making it evident schools of that size were not welcome in the league. Talk began of Bryan, Defiance, and Napoleon joining up in another league separate from the NWOAL.
*In 1969, the Northern Border League was formed by the smaller members of the NWOAL as a way for them to compete for league titles. Delta and Swanton withdrew from the NWOAL completely while Archbold, Liberty Center, Montpelier, Wauseon and the recently joined Evergreen become dual members of both the NBL and the now 7-member NWOAL. Patrick Henry would also compete in the NBL after consolidating for the 1969–70 school year, although their football team wouldn't begin NBL play until 1970. Competition between the five dual-league members counted in the standings for both the NWOAL and the NBL.
[Here comes another league](_blank)
/ref>
*Cross country becomes a league sport in the 1969–70 school year.
1970s
*Consolidated in 1969, Patrick Henry's football team joined the NBL in 1970.[Bears visit Pats Friday. Oct. 2, 1975](_blank)
/ref>
*In 1971, Evergreen left the NWOAL to solely compete in the NBL.
*In the spring of 1972, the NWOAL began their first league championship season for a girls sport with track & field.
*Volleyball became a league sport in 1973.
*In February 1973, more tensions arose when Liberty Center considered leaving the NWOAL completely to compete solely in the NBL.
1980s
*Girls cross country begins in 1981.
*Softball became a league sport in the spring of 1987.
2010s
*For the 2011–12 school year, girls soccer and bowling for both boys and girls begin as league sports.
*Prior to the 2013–14 school year, the NWOAL made an alteration to the league constitution in order to make football scheduling easier on member schools. The first option allows a 10th school to join the league without becoming a full member of the league, while the second option allows a current member to leave the NWOAL to play football in another league or as an independent.
*In May 2014, the Toledo Area Athletic Conference
The Toledo Area Athletic Conference (TAAC) is a high school athletic conference located in northwest Ohio, with member schools stretched across Lucas, Williams, and Wood counties. It was formed in 1988, and the league sponsors football, cros ...
approved adding Montpelier to its league for football only beginning with the 2016 season. In early June 2014, Montpelier's school board voted to remain in the NWOAL for 2014–15, compete as a football independent in the 2015 season, and then for the 2016–17 school year, they joined the TAAC for football only, became a full-member of the Buckeye Border Conference, and remained an NWOAL affiliate for wrestling only.
League Facts
*In 2017, the NWOAL crowned its first female league champion in wrestling as McKayla Campbell of Wauseon won the league championship for the 134 pound weight class at the league wrestling meet.
*For the first time in league history, two teams qualified for the OHSAA boys state basketball Final Four in the same season in 2017, as both Archbold and Wauseon made the state Final Four in divisions 2 and 3 respectively.
*Archbold's softball team set an OHSAA record by becoming the first team to win 12 consecutive league championships in softball after winning the title in the 2017 season. That streak ended in 2018, as Wauseon won the NWOAL softball title outright, marking the first time since 2005 that Archbold did not win a softball title.
League championships
Boys team champions
*Note: Bryan won a spring golf title during the 1973–74 school year.
Girls team champions
Northern Border League (1969-1978)
History
For the 1969–70 school year, the Northern Border League was formed by the smaller-enrollment members of the NWOAL as a way to compete for league titles without Napoleon and Bryan.[http://nwoal.org/filedownload/downloadfile/fileid/53/src/@random52ab1cf034f54 ] Delta and Swanton withdrew from the NWOAL completely while Archbold, Liberty Center, Montpelier, Wauseon and the recently joined Evergreen become dual members of both the NBL and the now 7-member NWOAL.
Boys team champions
Girls team champions
*Note: Delta won the 1974 regular season NBL volleyball championship while Archbold won the combined league tournament with the NWOAL.
State Championships
Fall sports
Winter sports
Spring sports
See also
* Ohio High School Athletic Conferences
This is a list of high school athletic conferences in Ohio, separated by Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) region. Some conferences have schools in multiple regions, and will be listed in all applicable regions. However, the conference ...
References
External links
Detailed membership history of the NWOAL and NBL (June 1973)NWOAL History from the Bryan Times, August 30, 1979Evidence of the dual membership for schools in the NWOAL and NBL from September 22, 1969Here comes another league Sept 4, 1969Sports Talk by Herb Lewis, Nov 24, 1970PH joins the NBL in 1970, takes football title in 1971, Oct 1975
{{Northwest Ohio High School Athletic Conferences
Ohio high school sports conferences