The Suburban League is an Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) athletics league made up of 15 high schools from Cuyahoga, Medina, Portage, and Summit counties in Northeast Ohio. It was formed in 1949 and expanded into two divisions in 2015.
Current members
Former members
Membership timeline
History
The Suburban League was established in 1949 by the larger high schools in the Summit County League. The original charter members were Copley, Green, Hudson, Manchester, and Northfield–Macedonia. In 1956, Highland joined for football only and competed for the '56 and '57 titles. The league expanded to nine schools in 1958 with the additions of Mogadore, Revere, Twinsburg Chamberlin, and Boston.
1962 saw two changes to league members as Northfield–Macedonia, which had been referred to as "Nor-Mac" or "Nor-Donia," became Nordonia, while Boston consolidated into the new Woodridge High School with Woodridge taking the place of Boston in Suburban League membership. Twinsburg Chamberlin left the league for the Chagrin Valley Conference in 1964, followed by Mogadore for the Portage County League in 1968, which dropped membership to seven schools for one season. Coventry joined from the Metro League in 1969 and membership returned to nine schools with Norton joining from the Metro League in 1972, but only for one year as Nordonia left in 1973 for the Metro League. League membership remained stable at eight schools for the remainder of the 1970s and into the 2000s despite several changes, beginning in 1976 when Manchester left the league for the All-Ohio Conference. They were replaced the same year by Highland, which had competed as a football-only member of the league in 1956 and 1957. In 1978, Woodridge left the league for the Portage County League and was replaced that year by Field, which joined from the Metro League. Membership again dropped to seven schools for one season after Coventry left in 1983, but Wadsworth joined in 1984 to return to eight member schools. The next change was in 1990 when Field left for the Portage County League and was replaced that same year by Tallmadge, which joined from the Metro League. Later that decade in 1997, charter member Hudson left the league after nearly 50 years to join the new Western Reserve Conference. They were replaced by Cloverleaf that same year.
During the early 2000s, the only changes in membership occurred in 2005 when Norton left the league to join the new Portage Trail Conference. They were replaced that year by Barberton, which left the Western Reserve Conference. Barberton's membership, however, ended up being brief and controversial. In early 2009, Barberton announced it would leave the league in 2011, with Barberton superintendent John Hall stating "we recognize our disagreements over athletics philosophies and approach must take precedence over league affiliation." He also added "We will become stronger by divorcing partners that never saw us as equals regardless of our successes.” There was also speculation that the league had asked Barberton to withdraw and that other changes were on the horizon for high school conferences in the area. Barberton left in 2011 and was replaced that year by Suburban League charter member Nordonia, which had been a member of the Northeast Ohio Conference (NOC). At the time of Nordonia's departure from the NOC, there were rumors that several NOC schools, particularly Stow–Munroe Falls, Hudson, Cuyahoga Falls, and Twinsburg, had expressed dissatisfaction with the structure of the conference.