Sports
NEWS: Gallia Academy School Board Unanimously Approves To Leave SEOAL
By: Nick Komjati
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The Gallipolis City Schools Board of Education unanimously approved a move that would make Gallia Academy a member of the Ohio Valley Conference on Wednesday night, accelerating the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League toward its inevitable end.
At the earliest, Gallia Academy would enter the OVC at the start of the 2016-17 academic year. The Blue Devil program is set to join former SEOAL foe Portsmouth in the OVC, a program that just completed its last season in the SEOAL.
With the vote, the remaining three SEOAL programs are beginning to search for new homes. After 90 years in the SEOAL, Jackson City Schools appears to have a new destination in mind. According to an article from the Jackson County Times-Journal, Jackson superintendent Phil Howard hopes that the Ironmen are able to enter the Southern Ohio Conference, a league that consists mostly of schools within the Scioto County school district.
Predictions on the future landing spots of Logan and Warren remain unknown, but moving to another conference is not a simple process. Jackson, Logan, Warren, and Gallia Academy applied as a group to join the TVC in March, but were turned down. The TVC still remains as a hopeful landing spot for remaining SEOAL teams, but with 16-teams already in the conference, the TVC likely would not accept the SEOAL teams in bulk if they asked once more.
The movement away from the SEOAL started when the Athens program departed eight years ago when the league consisted of 10 total teams. After Chillicothe left the league in 2013, the SEOAL was left with just five teams.