By MARK HUBER

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Amelia has submitted an application for admission to the Southern Buckeye Athletic Academic Conference while Wilmington has told the SBC it is not interested in joining that conference.

The next SBC meeting is set for May 14 and will include league superintendents, principals and athletic directors. At that time, the league will discuss expansion and realignment.

Lynch said a decision about expansion would be made in June and a letter of acceptance to the league will be mailed June 30 to new members of the SBC.

According to SBC President Dean Lynch, Amelia’s potential admittance to the SBC could have a ripple effect.

“In my crystal ball, this is something that will sparkle throughout Southwest Ohio,” said Lynch, the principal at East Clinton High School.

Because the league — by its own admittance — is top heavy with small schools, adding a school such as Amelia could attract additional big schools.

“We’re still going to be proactive,” said Lynch. “We’re going to start the process over again next year.”

Both Amelia and Wilmington currently are members of the Fort Ancient Valley Conference and compete in the Cardinal Division.

For Amelia, the SBC makes a good partner, especially as fuel prices continue to rise. The average distance for Amelia to the other 11 schools in the SBC is just over 16 miles. Seven of the 11 current SBC schools are within 19 miles of Amelia High School.

East Clinton is the longest trip while Georgetown is next at 31. Both of the schools likely would be in the opposite division from Amelia.

In terms of athletic championships in the FAVC, Amelia won the 2000-01 softball title, the 2006-07 bowling crown and the 2006-07 wrestling championship. Baron student-athletes also won four championships in academic competition while in the FAVC.

The SBC consists of East Clinton, Blanchester, Felicity, Georgetown, Williamsburg, Clermont Northeastern, Western Brown, New Richmond, Goshen, Batavia and Bethel-Tate.

The league has big schools such as Western Brown (428 boys and 388 girls) and New Richmond (315 boys and 290 girls) and small schools such as Georgetown (109 boys and 145 girls) and Williamsburg (141 boys and 119 girls). All numbers are based on enrollment figures from the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

If accepted, Amelia would be the largest school in the league with 543 boys and 476 girls.

Georgetown and Felicity do not have football programs but the other nine in the SBC do field a varsity football team. Amelia also has varsity football.

The SBC has decided to do away with crossover games between divisions counting toward overall SBC standings.

“Crossover (games) are a foreshadowing of leagues breaking apart,” said Lynch.

The SBC expansion committee is made up of Lynch, SBC Commissioner Bud Phillips, Batavia Superintendent Barb Bradley, athletic directors Bill Bean of East Clinton, Ron Ogden of Williamsburg, Mark Slagle of Goshen and high school principals Diana Spinnatti of New Richmond, Guy Hopkins of Felicity and George Rise of Blanchester.

There were 29 schools invited to the meeting, including schools from the Cincinnati Hills League, the Southern Hills League, the SCOL, the Ohio Heritage Conference, the Southwestern Buckeye League, the Miami Valley Conference and the FAVC. In most cases, only a select number of schools from a league were invited and not the entire league membership.

The schools attending the meeting were Wilmington, Amelia, Mariemont, Indian Hill, Madeira, North College Hill and Clark Montessori.

Any school that is accepted into the SBC would not begin official competition as a league member until the 2010-2011 school year.

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