Elyria Catholic finds home in new conference (UPDATED)

Elyria Catholic's athletic programs have found their new home. It was announced Wednesday that the Panthers will be a member of the newly formed North Coast Conference beginning in the fall of 2024. Elyria Catholic will join current Crown Conference members Padua, Beaumont, Lake Catholic and Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin plus Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy and Great Lakes Conference holdover Holy Name in the new league. "It all started when the Great Lakes Conference disbanded and it left us and Holy Name without a conference," Elyria Catholic athletic director Jim Piazza said. "At that time, we started exploring opportunities for us to be a part of. After we had some conversations with other conferences, a group of us, after looking, kind of got together and tried to get all of the pieces to work in the same time frame we needed it to work in." The move was precipitated by the GLC membership dwindling from 12 schools to two in recent months. Parma High School shut its door after this academic year, Fairview bolted for the Chagrin Valley Conference and remaining members Bay, Buckeye, Lakewood, Normandy, North Olmsted, Rocky River, Valley Forge and Westlake announced their intentions to leave the GLC after next season to form a new league. The GLC will crown its final champions next season. After competing against predominantly public schools since 2011 in the GLC and previously the West Shore Conference, the Panthers are returning to a league comprised solely of private, religious-affiliated schools. "I don't know why people look at parochial or public," Piazza said. "I guess I don't look at things that way, I look at we're a high school just like everyone else and we're trying to give kids the best opportunity to become student-athletes." Elyria Catholic's football team has been one of the smallest in the GLC since its inception. Going by 2023 enrollment numbers, the Panthers would be one of three Division IV teams in the NCC, along with Holy Name and Lake Catholic. CVCA, NDCL and Padua are all Division III programs. "Football wise we're going to be in great shape," Piazza said. "In the GLC we were the smallest school and I think in the North Coast we're going to be in the middle of the road to the smaller side of the conference." All of the Panthers' varsity programs will compete in the NCC with the exception of hockey, which will remain in the Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League. "It's kind of funny, I was in this conference when I first started," said Elyria Catholic girls basketball coach Eric Rothgery, who has been the Panthers head coach since 2008. "it was basically the same conference with most of these teams. It's a little more travel then we had in the West Shore or the GLC, but for girls basketball it's going to be a nice conference. CVCA has been a good team for a quite a few years. NDCL is always a team on the rise. I think it's going to be a good conference for us." Piazza said the initial reaction from the Elyria Catholic community has been positive. "I was kind of worried to see how people were going to take the news but right away we've had a lot of excitement," Piazza said. "People are excited about renewing old rivalries. This is a good thing for the Elyria Catholic family." Veteran baseball coach Bruce Lisicky thinks the new conference will be a good fit for the Panthers, and even though there will be increased travel, he said Elyria Catholic was already used to 40- to 45-minute bus rides to play the four Parma-based GLC teams. "I'm excited for the move," he said. "The competition level should be as good or better. Lake Catholic, Padua and Holy Name have always tough and I'm excited to add schools like NDCL." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.