The Oxford Board of Education voted unanimously last week to seek acceptance for its athletic teams into the Naugatuck Valley League. Currently, Oxford plays in the South-West Conference.
The board said the move is being sought for several reasons. Some of them include that Oxford - one of the smallest teams in the SWC with 566 students - could play against more similar-sized schools in the NVL. Also, board members said the NVL schools are closer from Oxford than those in the SWC.
While the board cited some intangibles that could not be quantified, such as that Oxford folks would take more pride in playing local schools like Seymour and Derby, we decided to take a closer look at a couple that can be measured. We looked at school populations of all schools in both leagues; those stats come from the most recent available from the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference website. And we calculated the shortest distances from Oxford High School to all schools in both leagues; that information came from Mapquest.
See the full committee report that the board used to make its decision attached as PDFs at the right. Click on them to make them larger.
School Population
Naugatuck Valley League
Naugatuck – 1,440
Kennedy – 1,373
Crosby - 1,328
Wilby – 1,220
Torrington – 1,185
Watertown – 1,008
Wolcott - 842
Woodland – 795
Ansonia – 777
Holy Cross - 725
Seymour – 707
Derby – 398
Sacred Heart - 381
St. Paul – 318
Average School Size in the NVL: 893 students
South-West Conference
Newtown – 1,761
New Milford – 1,567
Pomperaug – 1,421
Masuk – 1,307
Bunnel – 1,225
New Fairfield – 1,023
Brookfield –1,016
Bethel – 988
Joel Barlow - 959
Stratford - 967
Weston - 824
Oxford - 566
Notre Dame – Fairfield - 485
Lauralton Hall (all girls) – 431
Immaculate – 341
Kolbe Cathedral - 300
Average School Size of SWC: 949 students
Distance From Oxford High School
- Shortest Driving Distance From OHS per Mapquest
NVL
Naugatuck HS – 10.99 miles
Kennedy HS – 15.64 miles
Crosby HS – 20.39 miles
Wilby HS - 20.39 miles
Torrington HS – 36.17 miles
Watertown HS – 18.9 miles
Wolcott HS – 23.11 miles
Woodland HS – 5.58 miles
Ansonia High School – 7.12 miles
Holy Cross – 15.57 miles
Seymour – 2.95 miles
Derby – 4.91 miles
Sacred Heart – 16.68 miles
St. Paul – 39.14 miles
Average Distance From OHS: 16.9 miles
SWC
Newtown – 12.88 miles
New Milford – 26.71 miles
Pomperaug – 9.19 miles
Masuk – 8.41 miles
Bunnel – 13.72 miles
New Fairfield – 27.17 miles
Brookfield –20.73 miles
Bethel – 21.54 miles
Joel Barlow – 20.12 miles
Stratford – 16.32 miles
Weston – 29.74 miles
Notre Dame – 18.05 miles
Lauralton Hall (all girls) – 17.15 miles
Immaculate – 22.86 miles
Kolbe Cathedral – 18.72 miles
Average Distance From OHS: 18.8 miles
