Written Friday June 12th at 1:50 PM
Updated Friday June 12th at 4:40 PM
The OAA is coming to Mid-Michigan.
Stations like WNEM TV-5, WJRT ABC-12, and WEYI NBC 25 are going to get a taste to what the OAA is all about.
Novi, Northville, and Clawson decided to join the league in March and is coming in for the 2027-2028 school year.
The site visits are done and the principals voted on it.
The OAA has accepted Davison and Grand Blanc to join their ranks. Like Novi, Northville, and Clawson they will be coming into the league for the 2027-2028 school year.
Hometown Life's Brandon Folsom and multiple sources have confirmed this. WJRT ABC-12 confirmed that Davison Athletic Director Dave Beamer and Grand Blanc Athletic Director Jerrod Dohm received official acceptance letters to join the league on Friday afternoon.
Davison and Grand Blanc are in Genesee County and are archrivals. They are two of the biggest schools in Mid-Michigan. Grand Blanc has 2,350 students while Davison has 1,701 students.
The Cardinals and Bobcats played in the Saginaw Valley League. Davison and Grand Blanc were original members of the Big Nine Conference which started in 1960. The Cardinals got incorporated into the Saginaw Valley League when the Big Nine Conference dissolved in 2012 while Bobcats left the Big Nine Conference in 2009 for the Kensington Lakes Activities Association. Grand Blanc was kicked out of the league in 2017 which opened the door for the Bobcats to join the Saginaw Valley League. Both schools have applied to the OAA multiple times but were turned down but this time it was different.
Grand Blanc has been known for multiple sports particularly in football, cheerleading, soccer, track and field, and boys basketball.
Davison is known for football, wrestling, and has started to emerge as a girls basketball power. What makes the Cardinals unique is that they have DTV (Davison Television) which is a student produced television station like Lake Orion with WDBC-Dragon Broadcasting which does Lake Orion games.
Davison and Grand Blanc have played against OAA schools in the past. The Cardinals and Bobcats have had rivalries with Oxford, Clarkston, and Lake Orion but both schools have played West Bloomfield, Adams, among others.
The biggest impact these two schools will bring is football.
Davison and Grand Blanc have been dominant in the Saginaw Valley League. When Grand Blanc and Davison get sent west or into Macomb County like the Cardinals did in the past, they usually do well just like when Davison won their Division One State crown in 2019 when they did not see an OAA opponent but if they get sent south into Oakland County that's where both schools have ran into trouble. The Cardinals are 2-10 against the OAA since 2010. Davison was in the Division One State Finals the following season falling to Coach Ron Bellamy and West Bloomfield (West Bloomfield is an OAA member.) Davison has done a really nice job under former Lapeer East Coach Jacob Weingartz. Grand Blanc has fared a bit better against the OAA in the past but has run into Clarkston who has knocked them out of the postseason the last two years including when they were unbeaten falling 44-22 in the district finals. The Bobcats have been very consistent under Coach Kaleb Forr. What helps both schools is that the OAA has multiple schools that are in Division One while the teams in Division Two and Three are powerhouse programs in their own right. The Saginaw Valley League have only Davison and Grand Blanc as their only teams in Division One while the others including Lapeer, Midland, Midland Dow, Saginaw, Flint Carman Ainsworth, Saginaw Heritage, Bay City Western, Bay City Central, and Mount Pleasant are in Division Two or lower.
There are other sports that the Cardinals and Bobcats bring that are very impactful to the league.
Grand Blanc is a boys basketball powerhouse. They have had battles with Clarkston in the past and have played some of the top-notch teams in the State. The Bobcats were upset 45-43 by Oxford in the district semifinals last season. Davison has been a boys basketball power but had a rough year despite getting to the district finals and also falling to Oxford in the district finals last season. The Cardinals have a new coach in Tyler Thompson taking over for Mike Williams this offseason. Davison is also a wrestling powerhouse which would fit in with the likes of Clarkston and Oxford. Grand Blanc is also cheerleading power which will fit in with the likes of Lake Orion, Rochester, Adams, Stoney Creek, and Troy Athens along with being a soccer, baseball, and softball powerhouse.
There is an academic standpoint with both schools. Grand Blanc is one of the top schools academically along with Davison. Both are top notch schools like the rest of the league when it comes to academics.
It will be very interesting to see how the league is with 28 schools and 27 football schools, but we'll see how it goes.
Stay tuned to OAA Now for the latest on this developing story.
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