It's official: N10 adding 6 schools in 26-27 season

Hopewell-Loudon Athletic Director and football coach Brian Colatruglio described the move to the N10 as: "A perfect storm of timing."With the uncertainty of the direction of the SBC, especially the huge River Division, Calvert, H-L, New Riegel, Old Fort and Willard have been approved to join the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, starting in the 2026-27 season. The league also will bring in Lucas.The N10 release Friday afternoon stated: "The superintendents of the Northern10 Athletic Conference have officially voted to accept six new schools for the 2026-27 season. Calvert, Old Fort, Willard, Lucas, New Riegel and Hopewell-Loudon were unanimously welcomed to the N10 at Thursday's superintendent's meeting."Scheduling plans for individual sports were also approved by the superintendents and are awaiting final approval by the principals at their next meeting. That meeting date has not been selected."Colatruglio said the timing and the fit just seemed right to make the move to the N10, but one thing was very important – H-L, New Riegel and Old Fort all wanted to stay together, which meant either they all move to the N10 or they all stay put."The N10 sent out that release a little bit ago about wanting to expand and people within the SBC weren't too sure what the direction was in the conference and there was some uncertainty," he said. "It really was a perfect storm of timing with all of this. Us, Calvert, New Riegel and Old Fort were all committed to whatever together, which was a big thing for us. "We got together just us four and talked about what we wanted to do and we wanted to make sure we did it together. And joining back up with Mohawk, Carey and Seneca East (like the old MAL) seemed like the right move and the perfect fit."Currently, the N10 consists of Carey, Buckeye Central, Wynford, Seneca East, Colonel Crawford, Mohawk, Bucyrus and Upper Sandusky.The SBC River will add in Northwood for this next school year before the five of the SBC River teams leave for the N10. But with Danbury and St. Mary's with eight-man football and St. Joe barely having enough to field a full team for much of the season last year, things weren't trending in the right direction within the division. Plus adding in Northwood, it was almost another unknown. Another big issue was the schedule with other sports with 18-game league schedules. "The River just turned into something that we didn't sign up for seven years ago," Colatruglio said. "It had a completely different look back then and we were continuing to add schools to try to keep eight teams in the league for football, but it made other sports a mess. Now, we do have great relationships with those other schools, so it was nothing personal, but for our community to tell them we had a chance to join with some of the old MAL rivals in Seneca and Wyandot Counties, everyone was interested within our administration and community."As of now, the SBC River will be Lakota, Woodmore, Sandusky St. Mary, Gibsonburg, Danbury, Northwood and Fremont St. Joe. Ottawa Hills was just announced as joining the league as well.Scheduling and specifics on the two divisions in the N10 will be discussed or released at a later time, but considering Mohawk, Seneca East, Carey, H-L, Calvert, New Riegel and Old Fort will all be in the same league again … that's an opportunity Colatruglio didn't want to pass up."That's what I grew up with. I played in the MAL, I coached in the MAL with Mohawk, Carey, H-L, Calvert all playing each other," he said. "There were some unbelievable battles and it's going to be a really good football league."You then add in teams like Colonel Crawford, Upper Sandusky and Willard for some bigger schools, but I know this will benefit all other sports too. But speaking for football, if you win a conference like the N10, it's a huge accomplishment and it means you're really good."