Blanchard Valley Conference


The Blanchard Valley Conference is an Ohio High School Athletic Association affiliated athletic league located in Hancock, Putnam, and Wood Counties in northwest Ohio. Its name derives from the Blanchard River, which runs through the area in which the schools are located. Findlay, which is part of the Three Rivers Athletic Conference, is the only high school in Hancock County that is a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association that is not part of the BVC.

Current members

SchoolNicknameLocationColorsYear joinedPrevious Conference
ArcadiaRedskinsArcadia 1922none
ArlingtonRed DevilsArlington 1922none
Cory-RawsonHornetsRawson 1950none
Leipsic1VikingsLeipsic 1965
1971 		Putnam County, Northwest Conference
Liberty-BentonEaglesBenton Ridge 1922none
McCombPanthersMcComb 1922none
North BaltimoreTigersNorth Baltimore 2014Midland
Pandora-Gilboa1RocketsPandora 1966
1971 		Putnam County, Northwest Conference**, Northern Ohio League***
RiverdaleFalconsMt. Blanchard 2014North Central
Van BurenBlack KnightsVan Buren 1922none
VanlueWildcatsVanlue 1922none

  1. Leipsic and Pandora-Gilboa are also current member of the Putnam County League.
2.Charter Member
3.May need to check the conference name, P-G won conference title in another conference other than the BVC & NWC once.

Former Members

League history

The BVC's roots lie in the Hancock County League often known as the Little 9/8/7 League, which formed in 1922. Arcadia, Arlington, Liberty-Benton, McComb, Mount Blanchard, Mount Cory, Rawson, Van Buren, Vanlue were the founding members. Cory-Rawson was formed by the consolidation of Mount Cory and Rawson in 1950. The eight team lineup lasted for another decade, until Mount Blanchard joined the Hardin County League.
The remaining seven members decided to reorganize the league in 1965 and add other schools, giving birth to the BVC. Hardin Northern, Leipsic, and Westwood signed on to make the conference a 9 member/10 football member conference. When Westwood was absorbed by the Bowling Green City School District in 1966, Pandora-Gilboa replaced them in the league for the 1966-67 school year in football only. Leipsic and Pandora-Gilboa were both members of the Putnam County League for all non-football sports at this time.
Leipsic and Pandora-Gilboa were able to work out schedules with the PCL to be able to join the BVC in all sports, while keeping membership in both conferences, in 1971.
On April 19, 2012, Ada High School of the Northwest Conference, along with Calvert, Hopewell-Loudon, and North Baltimore of the Midland Athletic League made pitches to join the BVC after answering a letter of interest made in February 2012.
On May 21, 2012, the BVC extended invitations to Hopewell-Loudon and North Baltimore with the following report coming from the Findlay Courier:
North Baltimore accepted the BVC's invitation on June 19, 2012 and Hopewell-Loudon did the same a day later. Both schools joined for the 2014-15 season.
In April 2013, BVC President Traci Conley indicated the BVC wanted to expand to 14 members and first sent an invitation to Riverdale High School. Riverdale accepted the invitation on April 22, 2013, which meant the BVC wanted to pursue a 14th member to join the league. Riverdale's membership in the N10 was terminated shortly thereafter, and they would likely not have joined the BVC until 2015-16 at the earliest, but with Hardin Northern dropping football in 2013, Riverdale was admitted for all sports beginning in 2014.
In May 2013, Upper Scioto Valley publicly indicated that they were interested in joining the BVC as its 14th member, since they felt that its league, the Northwest Central Conference was no longer stable.
In late 2013, the NWCC extended an invitation to Hardin Northern, which also required a response by March 1, 2014. After suspending Hardin Northern from league play in football from 2013-2015, the BVC voted 9-1 to refuse a guarantee that Hardin Northern would return to the league for that sport. This pressure caused Hardin Northern's school board to decide on February 19, 2014 to withdraw from the BVC and apply to the NWCC for membership. The NWCC accepted Hardin Northern as a full member for 2014-15 on March 19, 2014, with football joining in 2015-16.
In August 2017 Hopewell-Loudon announced that they would leave the BVC for the Sandusky Bay Conference in the 2019-2020 school year after being offered an invitation to replace Shelby.

Enrollment

The current enrollments of the twelve BVC schools.
SchoolBoys Enrollment 2017Girls Enrollment 2017Total Enrollment 2017
Arcadia6581146
Arlington7178149
Cory-Rawson7067137
Hopewell-Loudon9799196
Leipsic8486170
Liberty-Benton140149289
McComb9478172
North Baltimore8379162
Pandora-Gilboa6457121
Riverdale11294206
Van Buren147116263
Vanlue302454

Football champions