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St. John Central Academy Approved by OVAC

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Ohio Valley Athletic Conference has approved a new member.

St. John Central Academy, a second-year school in Bellaire, was approved by a unanimous, 47-0, vote during the OVAC’s athletic directors meeting held inside Dowler Hall at Belmont College.

“Athletics in the Ohio Valley is the OVAC and we’re excited to be a part of it,” St. John Academy Athletics Director Robert “Bubba” Kapral said. “It’s very nice to be welcomed back with a unanimous vote. I’ve always been an OVAC guy and this is a nice way to get the school moving forward.”

In June, the Irish’s path to the OVAC was cleared when the school gained approval as a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

St. John Central Academy competed in athletics during the 2019-20 school year without being member of the state association.

The Irish become immediate members of the OVAC. With just 40 students enrolled in grades 9-12, St. John Academy will be the smallest OVAC member.

St. John Academy will compete in eight OVAC and OHSAA sanctioned sports for the upcoming school year. It will offer cross country and volleyball in the fall, girls basketball, swimming and bowling in the winter and then softball as well as track and field in the spring.

“The high school numbers are growing a little bit, but the grade school numbers are really solid and we have had an influx of junior high boys,” Kapral said. “Boys sports will be growing.”

According to Kapral, the Academy has plans to begin a youth soccer program, for its current students, with hopes of it dovetailing into a high school soccer program.

“(Soccer) is going to be big for us,” Kapral said.

“It’ll be able to attract kids and it’ll be another sport that our neighboring schools don’t have. Hopefully, we can get a boys basketball program because you need that big-ticket boys program.”

St. John Central Academy was formed after the Steubenville Diocese closed St. John Central, which was a charter member of the OVAC, following the competition of the 2018-19 school year. Led by a collection of alumni and parents, the Academy gained a charter and was formally recognized by the Ohio Department of Education.

“We really never wanted to leave the OVAC, but when the Diocese shut (St. John Central) down, the group had to re-brand quickly and it led to us losing our OHSAA membership and therefore our OVAC membership,” Kapral said. “St. John has a rich OVAC tradition and we’re trying to make this academy the St. John’s of old, that being the case, the OVAC (membership) is a big part of it.”

As St. John Central, the Irish still rank 11th in all-time OVAC titles at 91.

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