Cleveland West Conference

The Cleveland West Conference is an OHSAA athletics conference that began play with the 2024-2025 school year.

Members

Map of the Cleveland West Conference members

School	Nickname	Location	Colors[1]	Type	Tenure
Bay	Rockets	Bay Village, Ohio	Blue, White, & Red	Public	2024-
Buckeye	Bucks	York Township, Ohio	Brown, Orange, & White	Public	2024-
Lakewood	Rangers	Lakewood, Ohio	Purple & Gold	Public	2024-
Normandy	Invaders	Parma, Ohio	Orange & White	Public	2024-
North Olmsted	Eagles	North Olmsted, Ohio	Orange & Black	Public	2024-
Rocky River	Pirates	Rocky River, Ohio	Maroon & White	Public	2024-
Valley Forge	Patriots	Parma Heights, Ohio	Navy Blue & White	Public	2024-
Westlake	Demons	Westlake, Ohio	Forest Green & White	Public	2024-

League history

All eight schools were originally members of the Great Lakes Conference, which was formed in 2015.^[2] The GLC got up to 12 members for the 2021-2022 school year.

In June 2022, Parma City Schools approved a consolidation plan that closed Parma Senior High School along with two elementary schools following the 2022-23 school year.^[3] In March 2023, Fairview announced that they would be joining the Chagrin Valley Conference starting with the winter sports season of the 2023-2024 school year.^[4] This came following a concern that Fairview would be "the smallest public school in an increasingly growing pool of larger ones."

In May 2023, eight GLC members (Bay, Buckeye, Lakewood, Normandy, North Olmsted, Rocky River, Valley Forge, and Westlake) announced that they would be leaving to form a new league for the 2024-2025 school year.^[5] This left only Elyria Catholic and Holy Name under the GLC banner. In May, those two announced they would form the North Coast Conference along with five other schools.^[6] The NCC will begin with the 2024-25 school year. In July 2024 the eight members that left to form a new league announced the name of their new league, the Cleveland West Conference.^[7]

References

1. "Schedules - Search School".
2. Rozboril, Robert (April 28, 2014). "New Great Lake Conference to include seven local schools for 2015-16 season". Northeast Ohio Media Group. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
3. Kosich, John; Ross, Catherine (June 10, 2022). "Parma Senior High School and 2 elementary schools closing at end of 2022-23 school year". WEWS-TV. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
4. "OFFICIAL: Fairview to Join Chagrin Valley Conference Beginning Winter 2023". FairviewAthletics.com. March 3, 2023. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
5. McKee, Vince (May 13, 2023). "8 Schools Depart GLC to Form New Conference". Kee On Sports Media Group. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
6. Shapiro, Todd (May 31, 2023). "Elyria Catholic finds home in new conference (UPDATED)". The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
7. Goul, Matt (July 15, 2024). "Former GLC public schools formally announce Cleveland West Conference". cleveland.com. Retrieved July 15, 2024.