The OVAC membership officially approved Wood County Christian as the conference’s 52nd member on Wednesday. Pictured, from left, are Wood County Christian Board member Alana Cunningham, OVAC Executive Director Dirk DeCoy and Wood County Christian Athletics Director Sarah Dunn. (Photo by Seth Staskey)
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — The Ohio Valley Athletic Conference is growing again.
By virtue of a 51-0 vote during Wednesday’s athletic director’s meeting inside Dowler Hall at Belmont College, Wood County Christian has been approved as the 52nd member of the bi-state conference.
Wood County Christian, which is located in Williamstown, W.Va., joins Parkersburg South as the second school from that county to join the OVAC. This expansion is the second in a span of less than three months. Marietta was just approved as the 51st member during the August meeting.
According to Alana Cunningham, who is a board member at Wood Co. Christian, there was more that attracted the school to the OVAC than just the sporting championships.
“The OVAC does a really good job of encouraging student-athletes, providing leadership opportunities, scholarships and all of that allows for good recognition of the student-athletes,” Cunningham, a former athlete and coach at Fort Frye, said. “I’ve had nothing but positive experiences in the past with the OVAC.”
Wood County Christian became eligible to apply for membership to the OVAC just two years ago when it joined the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission. OVAC bylaws state member schools must be members of either the WVSSAC or OHSAA.
“Obviously, (both the WVSSAC and OVAC) allows more opportunities for our student-athletes,” Wood County Christian Athletics Director Sarah Dunn said. “We’ve always felt that we’ve had athletes and some teams that could have done well in the postseason, so we wanted to give them that opportunity.”
Wood County Christian will slot in Class 1A of the OVAC and is the second-smallest school. It’s bigger than only St. John Central Academy. All told, the school has 59 students in grades 9-11, which will be what’s counted for next school year’s OVAC divisions and there are 24 current seniors.
“We have 281 total students grades K-12, and we’re experiencing a lot of growth,” Cunningham said. “We hope we’re able to continue to build and enhance our athletic programs and facilities.”
Though Wood County Christian becomes eligible immediately for all OVAC tournaments and member benefits, Dunn believes the conference’s track and field championship will be the first sport it competes in for this school year.
All told, the school fields teams in 10 sports. It does not have a football team, but fall offerings are soccer, volleyball, cross country and plans to begin golf next season. During the winter, boys and girls basketball and it has one person on a swimming team this season.
During the spring, track and field, tennis and baseball are the usual offerings, but Dunn isn’t sure they will be able to field a baseball team.
“(OVAC Executive Director) Dirk (DeCoy) was great about sharing information with us on what being in the OVAC would look like from a practical level,” Cunningham said.
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