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The Great Lakes Conference was an OHSAA athletics conference that began play with the 2015-16 school year. It disbanded following the 2023-24 school year.

Members

League history

As part of a significant realignment in Cleveland-area high school leagues at the time, the Great Lakes Conference was formed in 2015 by seven schools that were located in Cleveland's west suburbs and had similar competition levels. Normandy, Parma, and Valley Forge came from the former Northeast Ohio Conference, Bay, Elyria Catholic, and Rocky River came from the former West Shore Conference, and Holy Name came from the North Coast League.

The league added Buckeye and Fairview in 2019. Buckeye and Fairview were two of four schools being left out after eight of the 12 Patriot Athletic Conference schools decided to form a new league with more compact traveling distances.

On April 16, 2019, it was announced that Lakewood would join for the 2020-21 school year, leaving the Southwestern Conference in order to do so.

On February 20, 2020, it was announced that North Olmsted and Westlake would join for the 2021-22 school year, bring the GLC's membership to 12 schools. Both schools came from the Southwestern Conference. With 12 members, the GLC will split into two divisions for some sports. The East Division will consists of Buckeye, Holy Name, Lakewood, Normandy, Parma, and Valley Forge; the West Division consists of Bay, Elyria Catholic, Fairview, North Olmsted, Rocky River, and Westlake.

End of the conference

In June 2022, Parma City Schools approved a consolidation plan that would close Parma Senior High School along with two elementary schools following the 2022-23 school year.

In March 2023, Fairview announced that they would be joining the Chagrin Valley Conference starting with the winter sports season of the 2023-2024 school year. This came following a concern that Fairview would be "the smallest public school in an increasingly growing pool of larger ones."

In May 2023, eight GLC members (Bay, Buckeye, Lakewood, Normandy, North Olmsted, Rocky River, Valley Forge, and Westlake) announced that they would be leaving to form a new league for the 2024-2025 school year. This left only Elyria Catholic and Holy Name under the GLC banner. In May, those two announced they would form the North Coast Conference along with five other schools. The NCC will begin with the 2024-25 school year. In July 2024 the eight members that left to form a new league announced the name of their new league, the Cleveland West Conference.

Rivalries

The major rivalries in the GLC include the following:

(Interdivisional)

Lakewood Rangers vs Fairview Warriors

Lakewood Rangers vs Rocky River Pirates

(Divisional)

(West) Bay Rockets vs Rocky River Pirates

(West): Bay Rockets vs Westlake Demons

(West): Fairview Warriors vs Rocky River Pirates

(East): Buckeye Bucks vs Valley Forge Patriots

(East): Normandy Invaders vs Valley Forge Patriots

(East): Normandy Invaders vs Parma Senior Redmen

(East): Parma Senior Redmen vs Valley Forge Patriots

Championships

This information is of clearly stated champions according to the available end of season reports by the Great Lakes Conference from years 2015-2021.

References

1. Leonard, Michael (June 28, 2015). "Northeast Ohio Conference Fades Into History With a Whimper". Tallmadge Express. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
2. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-08-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. "Schedules - Search School".
4. Rozboril, Robert (April 28, 2014). "New Great Lake Conference to include seven local schools for 2015-16 season". Northeast Ohio Media Group. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
5. Goul, Matt (May 10, 2018). "Fairview, Buckeye joining the Great Lakes Conference in 2019". www.cleveland.com. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
6. "North Olmsted, Westlake to move to Great Lakes Conference in 2021". Morning Journal. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
7. "Great Lake Conference 2021-22: 12 Schools - 2 Divisions". greatlakesconference.org. 5 August 2021. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
8. Kosich, John; Ross, Catherine (June 10, 2022). "Parma Senior High School and 2 elementary schools closing at end of 2022-23 school year". WEWS-TV. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
9. "OFFICIAL: Fairview to Join Chagrin Valley Conference Beginning Winter 2023". FairviewAthletics.com. March 3, 2023. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
10. McKee, Vince (May 13, 2023). "8 Schools Depart GLC to Form New Conference". Kee On Sports Media Group. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
11. Shapiro, Todd (May 31, 2023). "Elyria Catholic finds home in new conference (UPDATED)". The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
12. Goul, Matt (July 15, 2024). "Former GLC public schools formally announce Cleveland West Conference". cleveland.com. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
13. "Great Lakes Conference". greatlakesconference.org. Retrieved 2023-01-26.

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