I've been pretty out of the loop these past few months.. What's going on with them? Definitely no COC and now no Ozark Conference?
Bolivar
- Thread starter mizzoutiger13
- Start date
Now, they are going to try to see if the Ozark Conference will take them in all sports EXCEPT football. If they get turned down again they will play as an independent.
Not sure locally who they will play in football all conferences will be full COC large Ozark Big 8 going to be tuff scheduling.
They should be able to find some out of state opponents to play, but their travel budget just got hit hard. I can see Pittsburg, KS being on the schedule. Going to be very tough scheduling for the most with the 3 "big school" conferences in the area filling up.
This request was for all sports but Football correct, So it seems Football and scheduling was not the only sticking point the last vote.
Any clue why the denial? Does the OC want them in football, so holding out for that? Or not want them at all?
Bolivar first tried in all sports and was denied, however the OC told them to put together something without football because that seemed to be the sticking point for denial. So I think they thought this would be a slam dunk, I guess it was not.
Thanks for the info. Wonder why it happened that way? Granted, I'm clueless what it looks like outside of...Can we come in with all sports? No. Okay, how about everything but football? Lol. I'm clueless to the process.
the first vote with football was 5-4 in favor, Joplin abstained, because well they are leaving, and Central cannot vote yet, I wonder if the cuts in transportation cost that happened between the last vote and this vote played any part in the decision to deny?
I have no knowledge of the situation. I seen scoreboard guy retweet it yesterday and seen it brought up on here before so I posted it after searching for where it was written about before
Good question. I suppose it could have. I think most OC schools play Bolivar in most sports. I know we do. Pretty sure all the Springfield schools do as well. Maybe the conference just isn't excited about adding to 11. Kind of an odd number when you think about it. Find another and then you could probably justify breaking up to small and large.
Bolivar is just not well liked by many schools..... their history is catching up with them....
What history is that?
I would imagine Bolivar would not fill a Freshmen/B Freshman and JV Team on most years like the OC Schools.
I would guess Coach Johnson is respected by his peers...... even with no more coaching experience he has.
Was Bolivar actually booted from the COC ??? I don't see why they can't stay in the conference. Pretty crappy deal for them
For years they have dodged playing bigger schools in both the large COC and OC but but had no problem scorching the small COC where they were almost twice as big as a couple members....
Glendale has never played (to my knowledge) Bolivar in boys/girls basketball, baseball & football outside of a tournament or post-season. I don't think Kickapoo has either. So, I'm not sure it's correct to say most of the SPS schools already play Bolivar in some or most sports. Hillcrest has played them in boys/girls basketball, but that was more of a district deal than a traditional non-conference series.
Then why did they schedule Nixa, branson, Willard, Ozark, does harrisonville count?, as well as Republic.
They have played (and beat) Hillcrest including during the DGB years.
I have asked the same question before out of curiosity. When I was in school we didn't like Bolivar because of our perception of bad sportsmanship (players and fans) and "crooked" referees. I figure it was just a perception, but it was the only opponent out of many that I recall ever hearing those kinds of comments about.
So when I started reading things about Bolivar from other people on this board it made me wonder if maybe we weren't the only ones with that perception. When I have asked the question on here, it sounds like the more common complaint today is just that they tend to play a lot of smaller schools and then chest pound when they beat them. Maybe that was by design, maybe it was out of necessity. Sounds like they are trying to schedule larger but not having much luck. I have also heard from people who moved there that it's a very strange town with an unusually high amount of good ole boy politics and power brokering. Who knows.
I believe you can say the same thing about any town under 10,000 in population.
Taking personal feelings about their success in football and perceptions of their players and fans, I guess the thing that I would be concerned about, as a parent of an athlete, would be the amount of travel that these students and their families are now going to have to endure in order to compete in all athletics based on not having a conference affiliation. Outside looking in, it would seem that someone or several people there were asleep at the wheel by not anticipating this happening. I know that there have been rumors for many years about realignment and it was no surprise when certain small division COC schools took their ball and went elsewhere.
Well since the Large division is the only one remaining I dont see what they could do. They large and small are essentially two separate conferences. With CJ and Joplin in the COC Large it seems pretty filled up.
Easy thing would be to kick Class6 joplin out
Nothing says you have to play every team in the conference in football. Rotate the scheduling and don't worry about it
Did Bolivar even ask if they could join the COC large? I mean it looks like they have no interest in joining it since they asked the Ozark, no mention any place of them seeking membership into the COC Large.
I know we played Bolivar in the past forever in football and a lot of other sports. I don't think many of the Big 8 schools had issues with them joining. But my understanding is the COC small schools pretty much said they did not want Bolivar in. Now I have heard from a very unreliable source if they can find another school that would be a good fit they could ask to join, but the Big 8 does not want unequal divisions, if they have 7 schools in one they want 7 in the other and so forth.
Very true, but this was from people who had lived in Carthage, so that's saying a lot if you are familiar with Carthage.
Bolivar does have 2 Freshman teams and a JV. They did in the 90s and they've grown since then, so I wouldn't see how they don't now.
The beating up on small teams thing is pretty tiring. Reeds Spring and Log Rog are not much smaller. Marshfield is bigger and Catholic is a private school. Hollister was always a weird inclusion and Buffalo has had some hard times admittedly. Bolivar did schedule old COC large rivals as much as they could. This stinks for the kids in Bolivar and its sad to see some people out there celebrating it.
Bolivar strikes me as one of those schools with unfortunate geography, where they are inevitably going to have to play either larger or smaller on a fairly consistent basis.
The COC Large seems reasonable but as mentioned, there really isn't room, at least in football. For us in the Joplin area, it would be a fairly long trip. But closer for some of the other members. Bolivar would be small but I think they would compete.
The Big 8 seems good as well, but the geography is a little off and do they want more members either? Bolivar would be large and maybe again be the subject of the picking on smaller schools discussion - assuming they dominated - I don't think they would in this league. Being larger than everyone else only becomes a problem if you also consistently win.
It's kind of hard to find an obvious fit for Bolivar even for us outsiders with all the answers, which is maybe why they are in such a predicament. I agree it is unfortunate for the kids and I'm sure it's frustrating for admin.
The COC Large seems reasonable but as mentioned, there really isn't room, at least in football. For us in the Joplin area, it would be a fairly long trip. But closer for some of the other members. Bolivar would be small but I think they would compete.
The Big 8 seems good as well, but the geography is a little off and do they want more members either? Bolivar would be large and maybe again be the subject of the picking on smaller schools discussion - assuming they dominated - I don't think they would in this league. Being larger than everyone else only becomes a problem if you also consistently win.
It's kind of hard to find an obvious fit for Bolivar even for us outsiders with all the answers, which is maybe why they are in such a predicament. I agree it is unfortunate for the kids and I'm sure it's frustrating for admin.
This is way off topic, but I went to an offensive/defensive line camp a long time ago, and there was an amazing linemen from Bolivar there. I believe his name was Scott Crane? Did he ever go on and play college ball any where?
Sorry lol I know this is irrelevant but Bolivar being kinda far for Joplin really? Branson takes longer to get to then bolivar and ozark is about the same distance as bolivar! Plus you guys used to have to travel to Lebanon, Camdenton, Wayensville, Rolla, and west plains. So travel distance is a terrble excuse!
I would love for the big 8 to take Bolivar. We the Cubs used to play them the first game every year and it used to be quite the rivalry and I'm hoping some how coach uhl can get them back on the schedule. Would only benefit both programs!
All of the Bolivar hate really does come across as sour grapes by many on here. That is a shame because its kids were talking about. Sometimes that gets lost.
Hey that sword cuts both ways, those teams they were beating the crap out of were made up of just High school kids also.
By "schools" you're basically talking about 2 teams. Buffalo and Hollister. I don't count Catholic in that mix since they're a private school.
I feel Bolivar is in a tough spot. People only think of football but that's just one sport. I do think Bolivar should have read the tea leaves better and felt the sentiments of others in the small. A move to the OC before Central accepted would have made a lot of sense. OC schools haven't grown at the rapid rate that the COC large has.
I hope Bolivar is able to still play some traditional rivals. And like Jr4038 said, bringing back the yearly Monett v Bolivar game would be great.
The COC is 50 years old this year. It was formed in 1967 with Bolivar, Buffalo, Republic, Marshfield and Willard as charter members.
