GREENVILLE – Greenville High School, one of the smallest of the 20 Greater Western Ohio Conference (GWOC) teams finished tied for fifth place with Troy, just 00.4 of a point behind Vandalia Butler in spring sports proving Greenville students athletes are winners.
“As we look at our athletic programs – there is success throughout,” said Greenville Athletic Director Aaron Shaffer. “Wins and losses, obviously, those are the things a lot of people are looking at.”
Spring sports include baseball, softball, boys tennis and track & field. Track & field is not recorded on the GWOC site unlike the other spring teams.
Greenville’s baseball, softball and boys tennis teams all completed conference play with winning records including a perfect 15-0 Lady Wave softball record, one of five GWOC teams to go undefeated in spring play.
Centerville baseball was perfect at 12-0 as well as the school’s boys tennis team with an 8-0 mark, Butler baseball was undefeated with a 14-0 league record and Troy’s boys tennis finished with a 10-0 mark.
The Greenville boys and girls track and field teams had a good season with the girls finishing well up in the top half of the 20 school GWOC conference meet with a seventh place finish.
Lady Wave junior, Riley Hunt set a new all-time state record in the girls pole vault with a jump of 13’6.5” in Division I, won district and regional titles and will represent the Green Wave at state and the boys track and field team finished 14th at the GWOC meet.
Springboro took the spring season with a combined 86.6 winning percentage, Centerville was second at 81.25, Tippecanoe finished third at 77.5 followed by Butler in fourth with a 72.9 winning percentage.
Greenville and Troy tied with a 72.5 spring season winning percentage to round out the top six GWOC schools.
The winning percentages begins to drop off with Lebanon coming in seventh with a 60.0 winning percentage followed by Fairborn at eighth with 57.9 percent, Miamisburg at 56.6 percent with a ninth place mark, Xenia takes the 10th slot with a 55.2 percent winning percentage and finishing 11th rounding out teams with winning marks goes to Beavercreek at 53.1 percent.
Sidney takes No. 12 at 45.0 percent and Piqua finishes 13th at 37.5 percent. Northmont comes in 14th with a 36.6 percent winning record and Stebbins 15th at 31.5 percent.
Fairmont placed 16th with a 31.2 winning percentage, Springfield drops down below 30 percent in the 17th spot with a 25.0 winning percentage.
Basketball and football powerhouse Huber Heights Wayne comes in 18th place at 21.8 percent and West Carrollton takes 19th with a 21.0 percent mark. Trotwood-Madison, also a basketball and football perennial powerhouse takes the last spot with a 05.4 winning percentage.
Ten GWOC schools including Greenville will leave the GWOC to begin Miami Valley League (MVL) play in the fall of 2019.
The MVL initially was established in 1926. Its rebirth will include charter members Greenville, Piqua, Sidney, Troy and Xenia. Also leaving the GWOC for the MVL are Butler, Fairborn, Stebbins, Tippecanoe and West Carrollton.
“Often times a lot of times athletic success is gaged just on wins and losses and relative to a lot of our other opponents, particularly as we move forward away from the GWOC and into the MVL, teams we’re more like in terms as enrollment and student population and things like that, we do complete well,” said Shaffer. “You’re going to have moments or times where your team may not be performing in regards to wins and losses as well as maybe we want, and I can tell you the coaches and the kids want to win more than anybody, but as a general statement our kids compete well and represent our school, our community and our families very well.”
“By moving into the Miami Valley League it puts us in a little bit more of a level playing field in terms of demographics – school size. “We’re still going to be one of the smaller schools but that’s just the nature of the beast. That is not an excuse, that’s just a truth. I think when you look at the teams that we are going to be competing against, half to two-thirds of the new conference is what we would consider to be traditional rivals from back in the ‘70s, ‘80’s, ‘90s.”
“Until the formation of the GWOC and as the GWOC changed over time, it just become something that was less and less like the other schools. We’re not a Huber Heights Wayne, we’re not a Centerville, a Springboro, a Beavercreek. That’s not who we are, but those MVL schools are teams that we are more like – and we will compete well against those schools across the board.”
“We are going to compete against those schools,” concluded Shaffer. “Is it still going to be a very challenging conference – no question, but for our kids it gives them the opportunity to compete on a little bit more level playing field.”
