2019 – 20 League Preview: Sandusky Bay Conference – River Division
The Sandusky Bay Conference – River Division is an athletic conference spanning schools from Sandusky, Ottawa, Seneca and Erie Counties. The high schools comprising the league include Calvert, Danbury, Gibsonburg, Hopewell-Loudon, Lakota, St. Joseph’s Central Catholic, St. Mary’s Central Catholic,…
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Continue ReadingThe Sandusky Bay Conference – River Division is an athletic conference spanning schools from Sandusky, Ottawa, Seneca and Erie Counties. The high schools comprising the league include Calvert, Danbury, Gibsonburg, Hopewell-Loudon, Lakota, St. Joseph’s Central Catholic, St. Mary’s Central Catholic, New Riegel and Old Fort.
5 Players to Watch:
(schools are as of last year – unless PGH is 100% certain that a player has enrolled elsewhere)
Brooklyn Gillig – New Riegel
Becca Morelock – Gibsonburg
Aubrey Bouillon – New Riegel
MaKayla Elmore – Hopewell-Loudon
Kaia Woods – Hopewell-Loudon
4 Thoughts:
Sandusky St. Mary Central Catholic and Old Fort both had tremendous seasons last winter, sharing the league championship. However, both teams lose some tremendous players. SMCC will need to replace Ashley Huntley, Tre McCarty and Maggie London, among others – and Old Fort will do the same with Morgan Miller, Laini Gillett, Jenna Clouse and Madison Guth. SMCC will start the process with the likes of Karina Neer and Allison Weilnau leading the way. Old Fort will do the same with Ashlyn Magers, Kara Davidson, Jordan Reineck and Aly Pence.
Hopewell-Loudon joins the River Division of the Sandusky Bay Conference after 5 years of participation in the Blanchard Valley Conference. They made it all the way to the regional tournament last season and should be even stronger this winter – as All-Ohioan Kaia Woods joins the team after transferring from Tiffin Columbian. Woods will join 1st-Team All-State performer MaKayla Elmore and standout guard Olivia Zender as the Chieftans continue to work towards their ultimate goal – a trip to the state Final 4 in Columbus.
New Riegel – a program that is traditionally very strong – returns some of the top talents in the conference. Brooklyn Gillig was last year’s league player of the year and Aubrey Bouillon and Kayleigh Lininger should provide enough firepower for their team to challenge all opponents.
Becca Morelock from Gibsonburg, Alexa Gabel from Lakota and Kayla Rodriguez from Danbury are some other standouts returning for competition in the 2019-2020 version of the SBC River Division.
3 Big Games:
Lakota @ Gibsonburg on December 14th
Hopewell-Loudon vs New Philadelphia @ The Classic in the Country on January 20th
Hopewell-Loudon @ New Riegel on February 13th
2 Fun Facts:
Although few players achieve the milestone during their careers, most would love to score 1000 points in their 4 seasons. After only 2 years, MaKayla Elmore has already reached that prestigious 1000-point plateau, doing it last winter after averages of 24.8 as a freshmen and 21.3 as a sophomore.
The River Division could be considered the “small school” branch of the conference – with nearly every team playing in the OHSAA Division 4 tournament in girls basketball, while a number of the football teams at these schools are primarily in Division 6 and Division 7 competition.
1 League Champion Prediction:
Hopewell-Loudon