Photo By KIm North OVAC Executive Director Dirk DeCoy speaks to the media Wednesday morning inside the ECO Center in St. Clairsville.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The OVAC expanded to an unprecedented 58 schools Wednesday as Executive Director Dirk DeCoy announced the addition of a modern-day record six institutions during media day inside the OVAC Headquarters at the ECO Center.

“This expansion means we are doing something right,” DeCoy explained. “When schools start coming to us means something. We don’t go out and recruit schools.”

Joining the OVAC are Columbiana, East Palestine, Leetonia, Lisbon David Anderson, United and Valley Christian high schools. Heartland Christian, located in Columbiana, joined in April. All except Valley Christian (Youngstown) are located within Columbiana County, and all, except Heartland Christian, are currently — and will continue to be — members of the 8-team East Ohio Athletic Conference (EOAC), which also includes OVAC members Southern Local and Wellsville.

“Now we have the entire conference inside our conference,” DeCoy added. “The benefit of that is they can continue in the EOAC and compete for those championships, but they can also compete for OVAC championships.

“It also helps us so that we have more Class 3A and Class 2A schools. Schools can basically pick their own schedules because there are so many schools to pick from,” he continued. “It gives us more options.”

According to DeCoy, Columbiana and United will enter the OVAC in the Class 3A division, while East Palestine, Lisbon David Anderson and Valley Christian are Class 2A, and Heartland Christian and Leetonia Class 1A.

“This might be a trend of the future … conferences within conferences,” DeCoy noted. “That’s not a bad idea.”

In other news, former Clay-Battelle middle school and high school principal David Cottrell has assumed the duties of OVAC President, which is a two-year term. He replaces Bill Beattie. Eric Lowe, Superintendent of Beaver Local Schools, is the vice-president.

Raquel McLeod is the OVAC Service Award winner. She has served the past five years as the assistant OVAC cheering director.

DeCoy announced that there are eight new athletic directors this school year. They are Casey Davis (Bellaire), Jeff Wheeler (Cambridge), Chance Rucker (Caldwell), Jonathan Hoover (Steubenville Catholic), Josh Scott (Heartland Christian), Trey Barcus (Wood County Christian) and Stacey Yoho (Paden City).

Athletic directors at the new six schools are DJ Ogilvee (United), Erin Heasley (Columbiana), Dolph Carroll (Valley Christian), Kyle Bing (Lisbon), Bob Vaia (Leetonia) and Ryan Wells (East Palestine).

The OVAC Basketball Championships will relocate from Harrison Central High School to the ECO Center this winter, while the OVAC Volleyball Championships will switch from Union Local High School to the ECO Center in the fall.