It’s hardly being viewed as a slam dunk that the COC has strengthened itself by expanding this year to 12 full-time members, a pair of part-timers and splitting everyone into two divisions.
“People say the COC sucks,” Nixa running back Dylan Rebura succinctly said, relating the feedback he’s heard about the league on the football field this year.
The COC indeed has seemingly made itself vulnerable to mediocrity by bucking its traditional all-in format and shifting to two divisions.
The initial impression from a year ago when expansion was announced was that there would be two divisions only for football. But the powers-that-be (superintendents, principals, ADs) determined two divisions will be the scenario for all sports.
In the pursuit of team titles, the East Division and West Division, for all practical purposes, operate as two conferences.
How have things gone so far?
The fall sports season triggered an early trend within the COC in which multiple sports were top-heavy, with there being more bottom-feeders than ever before.
There were competitive contests to be sure. But there were just as many, if not more, lopsided laughers.
See Nixa football and how the Eagles separated themselves from everyone. See the struggles of former OC football programs in their new surroundings. See some of the incredibly lopsided softball scores involving lowly Parkview, Central, and Waynesville.
Finally, there were even instances this fall in which conference games were simply discarded by coaches due to the obvious huge gaps between programs. Such blatant indifference usually doesn’t occur in a conference setting.
Looking ahead to this winter, the Central and Parkview boys basketball teams could very well emerge as the COC East Division and West Division champions. But is that enough to justify the schools as COC members when they aren’t competitive in the great majority of other venues?
Addition by subtraction would seem to fit here. Parkview, Waynesville and Central have Ozark Mountain Conference written all over them.
Most bewildering is the format in which COC crossover games aren’t being counted in the division’s W-L totals. Under this directive, crossover games are designated as nothing more than non-conference contests.
Look around the college and professional landscapes and see how it’s correctly done. Crossover games are supposed to count.
The NCAA’s Power Five, er Power Four, conferences have done away with divisional formats in favor of letting all its members chase after the same crown.
The COC should do the same.
It's disturbing uprooted West Division member Republic will no longer play a single rival in COC play, unless Willard can be counted as a rival. Rather, Repmo's most anticipated games will be non-conference, er non-divisional matchups against Nixa, Kickapoo and Ozark. Obviously, that's not how it's supposed to work.
Anyone who thinks the COC has strengthened itself in football is kidding themselves.
— On the gridiron, the eight traditional COC programs were a combined 20-6 against the OC castaways. Nixa, Neosho, Joplin, Carthage, and Republic were all undefeated against former OC members.
No wonder there is a push from the top to go outside the conference to strengthen schedules.
On the bright side, former OC members Glendale and Kickapoo picked up their intiial COC East championships in the fall. Both teams also proved to be tops among all of the COC.
— Glendale earned a COC East championship in soccer by rolling through league play undefeated. The Falcons won 20 matches in a row but had to go to OT to beat Nixa at Districts, received a one-score game from Ozark, and had to go to a penalty shootout to edge Joplin.
— Carthage lost to Glendale, Ozark, and Neosho, but still won the West Division championship.
— Kickapoo, went through COC softball play undefeated and also didn’t lose to any SWMO opponent. The Lady Chiefs were crowned East Division champions. The ‘Poo played six COC West Division foes, Willard, Joplin, Neosho, Carthage, Webb City, and Republic, and beat them all, some more than once.
So much for tangible evidence of the new COC’s beginnings. The forthcoming intangibles can be deemed biased, outrageous or on target and the truth, take your pick.
Winning a COC championship used to mean a whole heck of a lot more than it does now. Two champions aren’t better than one. We don’t want to award everyone a trophy, do we? Guess we do.
Nixa football won the COC East Division championship. Did anyone even notice or care? It didn't register a blip on the radar. Did it feel like West Division champ Carthage had a championship season? Hardly.
All-COC First-Team recognition used to be something to be extremely proud of across the board. From this viewpoint, it’s always been just about the most sought-after and highly acclaimed individual post-season award for a COC athlete, surpassed only by All-State.
With two divisions and thus, two All-COC First-Teams, the conference usually won’t have enough players who warrant First-Team recognition to keep the honor’s once-glorious reputation from enduring a rapid and dramatic free-fall.
All-COC East and West Teams now read a whole lot like useless All-District Teams.
Schedules for this winter show Joplin serving as the COC Tournament host for wrestling for all conference schools. It has all the makings of the best COC Tournament the grapplers have ever had, with a nod to Lebanon’s added prolific presence.
It’s already been announced an East Division team champ and a West Division team champ will be crowned. Much more importantly and thankfully, there will only be overall individual champions.
By the way, it was almost universal that everyone felt the COC was doing the right thing by doing away with conference tournaments in basketball maybe as far back as 20 years ago. Coaches came to that conclusion to dwindle the number of possible meetings between conference teams. Well, those matchups are usually the rivalry games fans clamor to see.
Most telling, the COC Tournament is easily pointed to as the highlight of the year at every school in any sport at the junior high level. COC Tournaments at the freshman level also draw more fanfare than any other games.
Yet, we are supposed to believe none of us want to see a COC Tournament at the varsity level.
Give the COC credit for being open to change. But not all the changes were necessary.
