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The Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference needed one team. Garfield High School fit that criteria as the eastern Portage County school becomes the eighth member of the expansion group scheduled to join the conference next school year.
The G-Men will leave the Portage Trail Conference County Division to join the members of the current All-American Conference Blue Tier as a new and separate tier in the MVAC. The AAC Blue Tier teams include Campbell, Liberty, Crestview, Brookfield, Newton Falls, LaBrae and Champion.
MVAC Commissioner John Mang said Garfield won't be eligible for a division championship until the 2021-22 season, but will be member of the league. Garfield has some PTC scheduling commitments for the 2020-21 season it still has to honor.
"We're looking forward to having them," Mang said.
He said John F. Kennedy was mentioned as a possible candidate to fill the final MVAC spot and added that there are no current plans to add other PTC schools such as Southeast, Mogadore and Rootstown. Those three schools, along with Lake Center Christian in Hartville, will be all that is left of the PTC County Division after this school year when Garfield, Valley Christian (to the Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference) and Crestwood (to the Chagrin Valley Conference) leave.
Garfield athletic director Jim Pfleger said the G-Men already play schools like Champion and LaBrae. Those schools, along with Newton Falls, are about 10 to 15 minutes from the Garrettsville campus.
This wasn't the first time Garfield has been approached by another league.
"When this came up, it was a natural fit," Pfleger said.
The biggest drive for Garfield will be to Crestview, which is about an hour away. The drive to New Middletown is about an hour as well, but Springfield, McDonald, Western Reserve, Waterloo, Lowellville, Sebring, Jackson-Milton and Mineral Ridge are in the original MVAC division.
Mang said the two eight-team divisions will not cross over for play for the first two years of football in the 16-team MVAC. After the initial two years, the league will revisit where attendance and needs are for the member schools.
Pfleger said Garfield had a continuous contract with LaBrae for Week 2 of the football season. That changes being in the MVAC.
"We come from a real competitive league," he said. "Looking what we're heading into, it's exciting."