For the first time in a decade, Leetonia will call a new conference “home.”

On Wednesday, the Bears announced they were leaving the Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference for the Northeastern Athletic Conference.

“They just fit in our conference. Their school is a lot like the little schools in our conference,” new NAC Commissioner Melody Nowakowski said. “A lot of our schools already play them in almost every sport anyways, and just thought it was a great fit.”

Leetonia athletic director Nick Sferra sent a letter to Leetonia parents notifying them of the change.

The Bears were a founding member of the EOAC, which formed in 2016. They play in a league consisting almost entirely of Columbiana County schools. The lone exception was Valley Christian, which joined the league in 2020.

As it stands, the Bears will be the southernmost school in the NAC – and by a significant margin.

The league is mostly made up of schools in Trumbull and southern Ashtabula counties. The closest school to Leetonia is Lordstown, which is 24 miles away or more than a 30-minute drive. Meanwhile, the farthest member of the NAC from Leetonia is St. John, which is 83 miles away.

“While travel distances will increase slightly, on average about ten minutes per trip, we are working strategically to build schedules that minimize any major travel concerns for our families and athletes,” Sferra said in the letter. “One option we are actively entertaining for basketball season is hosting boys’ and girls’ doubleheaders, which would allow us to increase crowd attendance and school spirit, while also reducing the amount of daily travel required for families and athletes.”

The addition of Leetonia would add another football program to the conference.

This season, the only football teams in the league are Mathews, Pymatuning Valley, Fairport Harding, Grand Valley, Windham, Cardinal and St. John.

“That was definitely a key component,” Nowakowski said. “We don’t want to say that was our only reason, but that definitely was one of the things we did look at.”

Nowakowski said the league is losing Fairport Harding, which is the northernmost team in the league. Fairport’s departure for the Chagrin Valley Conference created an opening for Leetonia.

Nowakowski said the addition of the Bears will allow the conference to create divisions.

“That’s kinda how we’re going, except for St. John. We don’t feel St. John and Leetonia should be in the same division … that’s quite a drive,” Nowakowski said. “It’s mostly based on enrollment.”