DOVER — Ron Dessecker was sad to see Mount Vernon go, but at least the longtime Ohio Cardinal Conference commissioner can visit his hometown again on a regular basis as part of his job.
A Dover High School graduate, Dessecker brokered the deal that will bring the Tornadoes into the OCC for the 2025-26 school year. Dover will replace Mount Vernon, which is headed to the Licking County League beginning this fall.
Dessecker helped orchestrate the OCC’s last round of expansion, resulting in the addition of New Philadelphia — Dover’s arch rival. The Quakers accepted the OCC’s invitation in the spring of 2020 and came on board for the 2022-23 school year.
Dover, meanwhile, was left out in the cold as the East Central Ohio League splintered.
The Tornadoes sought refuge in the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference, a loose affiliation of more than 50 schools in southeastern Ohio and northern West Virginia. But in essence, the school functioned as a de facto independent.
“I used to joke with the guys and say I could only go back to Dover at night. I couldn’t show my face in town during the day,” Dessecker said recently. “Now I can go visit any time.”
OCC history
The OCC began play as a seven-team conference in the fall of 2003. Charter members Mansfield Senior, Madison, Lexington, Ashland and Orrville teamed from the disbanded Ohio Heartland Conference, while Federal League refugee Wooster and Mohican Area Conference affiliate West Holmes were absorbed.
Clear Fork came on board from the MAC the following year and the OCC enjoyed a decade of stability as an eight-team league.
The dominos began to fall in the 2010s when Orrville started searching for a more suitable conference home.
The Wayne County school re-applied for membership to the Principals Athletic Conference in 2015 — Orrville first applied to the PAC in 2013 — and was accepted for the 2016-17 school year.
The OCC offered the opening created by Orrville’s impending departure to Mount Vernon in March of 2015.
Mount Vernon, which was dismayed with the proposed re-alignment of the Ohio Capital Conference, the 32-team Columbus suburban mega-conference, accepted the Ohio Cardinal Conference’s invitation and began competing in the OCC in the fall of 2016.
The growing enrollment disparity between the OCC’s biggest and smallest schools resulted in the conference and Clear Fork deciding to part ways following the 2017-18 school year.
Clear Fork withdrew to join the new-look Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference, which lost half of its membership to the newly-formed Knox Morrow Athletic Conference, in the fall of 2017 and the OCC was again a seven-team conference.
New Philadelphia’s addition to the OCC brought league membership to eight, but Mount Vernon announced in December of 2022 it would depart following the 2023-24 school year for the big-school division of the expanding Licking County League.
The search for Mount Vernon’s replacement culminated in December when the OCC extended an invitation to Dover. The Dover school board voted unanimously to accept the invitation earlier this month.
“This is a win for our children,” Dover school board president Kyle Stemple said during a Jan. 11 board meeting. “I think it’s a good fit for us and I’m excited for our students.”
Cardinal Conference redux
With Dover and New Philadelphia in the fold, the Ohio Cardinal Conference has taken on a familiar look — at least for the older generation of high school sports fans in north central Ohio.
Madison, Ashland, Wooster and Dover were charter members of the old Cardinal Conference, which began full-time operation in the fall of 1960. New Philadelphia joined for the 1963-64 school year, along with Malabar and Coshocton.
The CC operated as a seven-team league from 1963 until Malabar left after the 1980-81 school year. Coshocton departed two years later and the league finally folded after the 1986-87 school year.
“Malabar dropped out. Then they asked if they could come back in with Mansfield Senior and it all kind of fell apart after that. Everyone went their own way,” Dessecker said. “New Philadelphia and Wooster went to the Federal League and Dover got into the Northeastern Buckeye Conference.”
Meanwhile, Madison, Ashland, Mansfield Senior and Malabar joined forces with Lexington and Marion Harding and the Ohio Heartland Conference was born in the fall of 1987.
Senior High and Malabar consolidated after the 1989-90 school year, but the OHC would survive as a five-team league until Vermilion and Orrville were accepted for the 1999-2000 school year.
The seven-team OHC ceased operation following the 2002-03 school year.
“In our community, there was always that steady drum beating for the Cardinal Conference from the group of people who I affectionately call our old-timers,” Dover athletic director Tim McCrate said. “They remember that conference and they remember the great rivalries.
“There are a lot of fond memories of the Cardinal Conference.”
The elephant in the room
When Dover comes on board, the Ohio Cardinal Conference will span five counties with its eastern-most affiliates situated closer to Wheeling W. Va. than Mansfield.
“The drive is not ideal for anybody,” said Madison athletic director Doug Rickert, who was an athlete for the Rams during the Cardinal Conference era.
“People will say, ‘We’ve got to drive all the way to Dover or New Philly.’ Well, Dover and New Philadelphia are used to it. They’ve always had to travel.”
The travel for Dover used to be far worse, Deccecker noted.
“This was back in 1957 and at the time Dover was in the Central Ohio League. The Central Ohio League had Marietta, Zanesville, Newark, Lancaster, Chillicothe, Dover and Coshocton. Talk about travel,” Dessecker said. “I remember going to a football game with my father and on that night Dover was playing at Lancaster.
“This was at a time when there was no I-77 or I-70. You had to drive on two-lane roads through all these small towns. Kickoff was at 8 o’clock and we got there just as they were kicking off. We probably got home at 1:30.
“Dover and New Philadelphia know there’s always going to be travel.”
For Madison and Ashland, schools that still compete in Division I in most sports, a trip to Dover isn’t as bad as the alternative.
“For a school like Ashland, when you consider where we are located and the fact that we are a Division I school in most sports, there’s more travel for us to go to Findlay or Toledo to find a (Division I) opponent,” Ashland AD Jason Goings said.
“Ashland to Mount Vernon is about an hour and five minutes. Ashland to Dover is about an hour and 15 minutes. It’s a push for us.”
Raising the bar
Dover brings with it a championship pedigree in several sports. The football program has qualified for the playoffs 25 times, including the past six straight years, and reached the Division III state semifinals in 2012.
The boys and girls golf programs have combined for six state tournament appearances since 2013. The Dover girls were Division II state runner-up in 2014.
The boys and girls cross country teams are regulars at the state meet. The volleyball team qualified for state in 2013 and the softball squad reached the state semifinals in 2008. The boys and girls basketball teams were both Division II state runner-up in 1998.
“They’re really good in every sport,” Madison’s Rickert said. “We’re going to get good competition no matter what and their facilities are fantastic.
“As a league, we did our due diligence. We investigated some other schools, but nobody checks the boxes the way Dover did. We’re excited about them coming into the league.”