Talawanda Brave prepare to play in new athletic conference this year

Starting this fall, the Talawanda High School Brave will be playing in a new athletic conference in every sport except football. 

Last July, Talawanda announced that each of its sports teams will leave the Southwest Ohio Conference (SWOC) and join the Southwestern Buckeye League (SWBL) starting in the 2025-26 school year. Football will play two more years in the SWOC before also joining the SWBL in the fall of 2027. 

The Brave have played in the SWOC since 2012. They join the Trenton Edgewood High School Cougars and the Hamilton Ross High School Rams, who both switched to the SWBL from the SWOC in 2023. 

Scott Davie, principal of Talawanda and head coach of the softball team, said the SWBL will allow the Brave to compete with similar-sized schools closer to Oxford. 

“It was certainly a good run,” Davie said, “but we saw some schools break away for good reasons, moving to some conferences that fit their size and geography a little bit better. Once Ross and Edgewood made that move, it really behooved us to try and follow suit or find another place that was beneficial for us.”

The other members of the SWBL include Madison High School and Monroe High School, two other Butler County districts. Talawanda will be the 14th school in the conference and will compete in the Southwestern Division alongside Edgewood and Ross. 

This move will not only have Talawanda playing regional schools from neighboring counties, Davie said, but the Brave will be playing in a very competitive conference with familiar ones, especially for his softball team. 

“I think the excitement will build, having a conference that’s as competitive as ours,” Davie said. “When you look around the Southwestern Buckeye League right now, Bellbrook has an absolutely phenomenal pitcher who will be a sophomore next year … Franklin traditionally has been a very, very strong program … Monroe was super young and really surprised a lot of teams last year … It’ll be competitive for sure.”

The softball program won the SWOC championship back-to-back in 2024 and 2025. It was the first time that the team had accomplished this since joining the conference in 2012. 

Audrey Hilbert, a senior captain and outfielder on the team, said having this success will be beneficial going into the new conference. 

“The past two years were our best years,” Hilbert said. “We won the conference, and I think we really needed that moving into a new conference this year because some of the competition we saw this year was good, but the competition we’ll see next year will be even better.”

For the head coaches at Talawanda, building a strong list of matchups during the regular season will push the Brave to compete at a higher level at every game. While the season may be tougher than previous years, Davie said the experience in the SWBL will give Talawanda an advantage going into the playoffs for each team. 

“It really creates such a nice competitive environment,” Davie said. “Every single game, you’re going to have to show up and be your best. I’m excited to see how that’s going to pay dividends for us once the playoffs roll around … If you can have a highly competitive regular season schedule, you’re putting yourself in a good position going into the playoffs.”

Boys’ and girls’ soccer and golf, as well as girls’ tennis, volleyball and cross country, will begin their first seasons in the SWBL this fall. Football will remain in the SWOC until 2027, which Davie said is due to the football schedule being built out years in advance. 

While softball season won’t begin until the spring, Hilbert said she can’t wait to see the new competition and show what the Brave can do. 

“I’m excited to see what our team can do with it,” Hilbert said. “We lost a few good players, but I think there’s a few good ones coming up, and we have a few that are still amazing and have been for the past few years. I think that it’ll just be exciting to see what we can do with the new teams that we face.”