With the eventual dissolution of the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Tier, the Brookfield Warriors will move to a new home – the Northeastern Athletic Conference.
Starting with the 2027-28 school year, fellow Grey Tier members Champion, Labrae and Liberty also are making the move to the NAC, which has schools from Trumbull, Ashtabula, Lake, Geauga and Portage counties, according to the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
The conference is growing from 13 members, which include Badger and Mathews, to 18, and all schools are roughly the same size, said Brookfield Supt. Toby Gibson.
The NAC was Brookfield’s “best hope” after several Grey Tier schools decided to leave, he said.
“To be in a league is beneficial,” he said. “You have consistent scheduling. We’ve been independent a couple times. It seemed like every other week we were on the turnpike playing somebody. To find teams with open schedules in the middle of a season is hard because that’s when everybody plays league schedules, so then you end up traveling. It puts kids and families in binds.”
The Warriors won’t avoid traveling in the NAC as St. John in Ashtabula County and Fairport in Lake County are on Lake Erie.
