The Lorain County League (LC8) is an

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

high school athletic league that began with the 2019-20 school year and is made up of eight schools predominantly based in

Lorain County, Ohio Lorain County () is a county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio As of the 2020 census, the population was 312,964. Its county seat is Elyria, and its largest city is Lorain. The county was physically established in 1822, beco ...

. All schools are members of the

Ohio High School Athletic Association The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) is the governing body of athletic programs for junior and senior high schools in the state of Ohio. The OHSAA governs eligibility of student athletes, resolves disputes, organizes levels of comp ...

. Previous versions of a Lorain County League existed from 1924–61 and again from 1968-2005.

League history

The most recent idea for the new LCL was formed in 2017 when the eight primarily Lorain County schools (Brookside, Clearview, Columbia, Firelands, Keystone, Oberlin, and Wellington, as well as Black River) announced they would leave the Patriot Athletic Conference (PAC) to form their own league by 2020. In response to the PAC's imminent dissolution,

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and Lutheran West were accepted by a league-wide vote in April 2018 to join the

Chagrin Valley Conference The Chagrin Valley Conference is a high school athletic conference made up of several schools in Northeast Ohio, United States. The league and its members compete as part of the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA). The conference is name ...

in 2019-20. In May 2018, Buckeye and Fairview were approved to join the Great Lakes Conference for the 2019-20 school year as their eighth and ninth members. Since the four schools that weren't invited to join the new LC8 were able to leave the PAC after the 2018-19 school year, the LC8 was able to begin a year sooner than anticipated.

Previous Lorain County League/Conference memberships

The first version of the Lorain County League began in 1924 as one of several small-school county leagues across

. The league survived the consolidation wave until 1961, when the schools who weren't already aligned with the Inland Conference joined the Lakeland Conference. The conference revived itself in 1986 as the Lorain County Conference when the Lakeland Conference collapsed, and the schools banded together for roughly two decades until the schools split, this time to help form the Patriot Athletic and West Shore conferences.

First Version (Lorain County League, 1924–61)

* Avon Eagles¹ (1924–61, to Inland) * Avon Lake Shoremen (1924–1961, to Lakeland) * Belden Bees (1924–55, consolidated into Midview) * Brighton Bears (1924–52, consolidated into Wellington) * Sheffield

Brookside Brookside may refer to: Geography Canada * Brookside, Edmonton * Brookside, Newfoundland and Labrador * Brookside, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Brookside, Berkshire, England * Brookside, Telford, an area of Telford, England United States * Bro ...

Cardinals¹ (1924–61, to Inland) * Brownhelm Bombers (1924–52, consolidated into Firelands) * Kipton Camden Knights (1924–52, consolidated into Firelands) * Columbia Station Columbia Raiders¹ (1924–61, to Inland) * Grafton Eaton Eels (1924–55, consolidated into Midview) * Grafton Comets (1924–55, consolidated into Midview) * Henrietta Hawks (1924–52, consolidated into Firelands) * LaGrange Wildcats (1924–59, consolidated into Keystone) * North Ridgeville Rangers (1924–27, to NOAL, 1933–61, to Lakeland) * Penfield Bombers (1924–59, consolidated into Keystone) * South Amherst Cavaliers¹ (1924–61, to Inland) *

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

Dukes (1924–27, to NOAL) * Lorain Clearview Clippers (1928–38, to NOAL, 1947–53, to Lakeland) * Oberlin

Firelands The Firelands, or Sufferers' Lands, tract was located at the western end of the Connecticut Western Reserve in what is now the U.S. state of Ohio. It was legislatively established in 1792, as the "Sufferers' Lands", and later became named "Fire Lan ...

Falcons¹ (1952–61, to Inland) * Grafton Midview Middies (1955–61, to Lakeland) * Lagrange Keystone Wildcats² (1959–61) # Concurrent with Inland Conference 1957-61. # Concurrent with Inland Conference 1959-61. Division Alignments

Second Version (Lorain County Conference, 1986-2005)

References

External links