Talawanda to leave Southwest Ohio Conference starting next season
Starting next school year, most Talawanda athletic teams will no longer compete in the Southwest Ohio Conference, instead transitioning to the Southwest Buckeye League. Football will follow in the 2027 season.
In a social media post July 24, the Talawanda School District Athletic Department announced that it would leave the Southwest Ohio Conference (SWOC) for all sports except football in the 2025-26 school year. The district will join the Southwest Buckeye League (SWBL) that year, with football following in the 2027 football season.
"We're always looking out for what's best for the school district and our athletic program," said Athletic Director Jake Richardson. "Obviously, getting the opportunity to move to a conference like the Southwest Buckeye League that'll put us in a division with six schools ... across the board we felt was a great fit."
The SWOC only has four schools in it currently — Talawanda, Mt. Healthy, Harrison and Northwest. Some of the schools don't have teams in the same sports as Talawanda, which Richardson said limits competition further. The SWBL currently includes 12 schools in two divisions. Talawanda is set to join the Southwest division with Bellbrook, Edgewood, Franklin, Monroe and Ross.
Edgewood and Ross each joined the SWBL in 2022 and began conference play last season. Richardson said it's common for schools to discuss switching conferences and adjusting from season to season.
With Talawanda's departure, the SWOC will be left with just three schools. Richardson said the school district has been transparent with the other schools about its intentions to leave, but he doesn't know what it may mean for the conference yet.
"Those are conversations that'll happen here soon, I guess," Richardson said. "Those schools will decide what direction they're going to go and what they're going to try to do."
The Oxford Free Press has reached out to the athletic directors for each school district in the SWOC for comment. The athletic director at Northwest said he would comment at a later time.
