Portage Trail Conference


The Portage Trail Conference or PTC is an association of 15 high schools and their associated middle/junior high schools located in the northeast region of the U.S. State of Ohio. Seven member schools are in Portage County, five are in Summit County, and one each is located in Medina, Stark, and Mahoning counties. The conference is divided into two divisions, based on enrollment. The Metro Division contains the larger schools, who compete in Ohio's Divisions III and IV for football, while the County Division contains the smaller schools, who compete in divisions IV-VII. Because they are based on enrollments, a school's membership in a given division can change if enrollment numbers change. Games between teams of the same division count in conference standings, while games against schools from the other division are treated as non-conference games. The conference officially began play in August 2005. Beginning with the 2020-21 school year the conference will undergo its largest change since its inception as the 8 Metro schools will be leaving to form their own conference, with the County Division eventually continuing to compete with a total of 6 schools.

Current members

Former members

History

The PTC was formed as an expansion and reorganization of the original Portage County League or PCL, which had existed for most of the 20th century and by 2003 included eight high schools in Portage County and two in neighboring Summit County. Beginning in 2003, school leaders in the league began to explore the possibilities of expansion and realignment to better meet the needs of all the schools involved due to the vast differences in enrollments at member schools. It was decided to expand the league and divide it into two divisions based on enrollment figures. Initially Ravenna, Norton, Springfield, East Canton, and Coventry accepted invitations to join the new league beginning in 2005. Later in the year, following news that the Western Reserve Conference would be losing at least two additional member schools, Kent Roosevelt left the WRC and accepted an invitation to join the new league effective in 2005 after initially choosing to remain in the WRC.
Final Portage County League members:
In January 2011, the PTC announced that due to a change in enrollment figures, Streetsboro would move to the Metro Division and Southeast would move to the County Division for the 2011-12 school year. East Canton announced in February 2011 that they would leave the PTC following the 2012–13 sports season to join the Inter-Valley Conference. In July 2011, Windham announced their own departure from the conference citing enrollment issues. They also left the PTC after the 2012–13 school year and joined the Northeastern Athletic Conference. The PTC heard presentations from four area high schools in May 2011, prior to the announcement that Windham would also be leaving the conference in 2013. Rather than expand, however, the PTC chose to stay at 14 teams, and Streetsboro moved back to the County Division for the 2013–14 school year. In September 2013, Kent Roosevelt announced plans to leave the PTC for the Suburban League beginning in the 2016–17 school year, later changed to the 2015–16 school year.
In December 2013, Cloverleaf announced it would leave the Suburban League for the Portage Trail Conference in 2015. Lake Center Christian announced it would join at the same time. The two schools officially joined in July 2015 and began conference play in August. At the same time, the divisions were reorganized, with Streetsboro and Woodridge changing to the Metro Division with new member Cloverleaf, and Crestwood moving to the County Division along with new member Lake Center Christian.
Waterloo High School announced intentions in early 2016 to leave the conference after the 2016–17 season. They began play in the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference in August 2017. Valley Christian School in Youngstown was announced in December 2016 as the PTC's newest member, and began PTC play in August 2017, joining from the North Coast League.
On April 15th, 2019, the eight Metro Division schools announced plans to break away from the PTC and start a new conference beginning with the 2020–21 school year. In response to this Crestwood announced it was considering leaving the PTC for the Chagrin Valley Conference, which was made official by a board of education vote on July 9th, 2019.
Next, Valley Christian announced it was leaving after the 2019-20 school year, with Garrettsville Garfield announcing it was leaving after the 2020-21 school year.
In the wake of these events, four of the remaining County Division schools began a search for schools to join the conference in order to keep it in tact. On February 5th, 2020 it was announced that beginning with the 2020-21 school year St. Thomas Aquinas and Warren JFK would join the conference, bringing the eventual final total to 6 schools.

Championships

The PTC has championships in 18 different sports, the most recent additions being the boys and girls bowling tournament in 2007 and regular-season competition in 2008. Most sports have champions for each division with the exceptions of boys tennis and girls tennis which are not divided into divisions because a limited number of schools offer the sport. In football, baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, and volleyball, the division champion is determined by the results of regular-season play. Other sports—cross country, golf, bowling, track and field, tennis, and wrestling—weigh the regular-season and season-ending conference tournaments equally as part of determining the season's overall champion.

Football

Boys cross country

Overall conference winner based on combination of regular-season finish and tournament finish.
YearMetroCountyState finishes
2005FieldWoodridgeWoodridge- 3rd, East Canton- 10th
2006CrestwoodWoodridgeWoodridge- 1st, East Canton- 2nd
2007CrestwoodWoodridgeWoodridge- 1st, Crestwood- 6th,
Field- 11th
2008CrestwoodWoodridgeWoodridge- 1st, Crestwood- 5th,
East Canton-5th
2009FieldWoodridgeWoodridge- 1st
2010FieldWoodridgeWoodridge- 1st
2011CrestwoodWoodridgeWoodridge- 4th
2012CrestwoodWoodridgeWoodridge- 1st
2013Woodridge

Girls cross country

Overall conference winner based on combination of regular-season finish and tournament finish.

Girls tennis

Overall conference winner based on combination of regular-season finish and tournament finish.
YearRegular seasonTournamentOverall
2005RavennaRavennaRavenna
2006RavennaRavennaRavenna
2007RavennaRavennaRavenna
2008RavennaRavennaRavenna
2009Kent RooseveltKent RooseveltKent Roosevelt
2010Kent RooseveltKent RooseveltKent Roosevelt
2011Kent RooseveltKent RooseveltKent Roosevelt
2012Kent RooseveltKent RooseveltKent Roosevelt
2013Kent RooseveltFieldKent Roosevelt, Field
2014
2015

Golf

Overall division winner based on combination of regular-season finish and tournament finish.

Boys soccer

Girls soccer

Girls volleyball

Boys basketball

Girls basketball

Wrestling

Overall division winner based on combination of regular-season finish and tournament finish.

Boys bowling

Overall conference winner based on combination of regular-season finish and tournament finish. Beginning in 2010, champions were crowned in both Metro and County divisions.

Girls bowling

Overall conference winner based on combination of regular-season finish and tournament finish. Beginning in 2010, champions were crowned in both Metro and County divisions.

Boys track & field

Overall division winner based on division meet finish.

Girls track & field

Overall division winner based on combination of regular season and division meet finish.

Baseball

Softball

Boys tennis

Overall conference winner based on combination of regular-season finish and tournament finish.
YearRegular seasonTournamentOverall----------------
2006NortonNortonNorton----------------
2007NortonNortonNorton----------------
2008NortonNortonNorton----------------
2009Kent RooseveltKent RooseveltKent Roosevelt----------------
2010Kent RooseveltKent RooseveltKent Roosevelt----------------
2011Kent RooseveltKent RooseveltKent Roosevelt----------------
2012NortonNortonNorton----------------
2013NortonNortonNorton----------------
2014NortonNortonNorton2015NortonNortonNorton2016NortonNortonNorton2017WoodridgeWoodridgeWoodridge2018Woodridge