Edgewood athletics is preparing for a big change in the 2023-2024 school year. In January of 2022, the Edgewood City School Board voted to accept the invitation of the Southwestern Buckeye League (SWBL). Edgewood and Ross are two teams that will definitely be making the move from the Southwestern Ohio Conference (SWOC) into the SWBL. This will lead to big changes for coaches, athletes, and the league itself.

Coaches and athletes seem to be ready for the challenge, Coach Micheal Campbell of EHS Track and Field and Cross Country (XC) in particular stating, “I feel really good about joining the SWBL. There are a lot of really good teams in that conference so we will have great competition the entire time. We’ve raced some of these teams before in cross country and track, they’re great schools to compete with and will make us better.” 

Junior, Rylie Homan, a varsity member of the women’s soccer and basketball programs is more than happy to hear about the change saying, “Moving into the SWBL is great for athletics, there are more teams than (in) SWOC and better competition overall.” But she’s also happy about Ross High School accepting their invitation as well, “I’m glad Ross is coming, then it’s not completely new but all sports will be playing a fairly new set of teams”. 

Jake Valerio, a senior in the class of 2023, will not get to play in the SWBL for Edgewood. Although, he did previously play at Madison High School. “Personally I didn’t get to play in the SWBL with Edgewood but I did play in the SWBL with Madison. They have good competition and I think it will be a good matchup for our upcoming teams. I wish Edgewood athletics the best of luck!”, comments Valerio. Right now the league plans on dividing into two divisions. Edgewood will be in the division with Ross, Monroe, Franklin, and Bellbrook.