By Paige Judson
Executive Editor
In the song “Bein’ Green,” Kermit the Frog laments that “it’s not easy bein’ green” and would rather be “red or yellow or gold.”
Well, it must be easy being green for Shores athletics as it makes its second go-round in the OK Green beginning with the 2020-21 school year.
Previously, the Sailors were part of the OK Green from the fall of 2005 to the spring of 2008 for three school years. In its history, Shores has been a part of the following conferences: Valley Coast (1965-1970), Lake Michigan Athletic (1970-1985), OK Red (1985-2003), OK Red Lakeshore (2003-2005), OK Green (2005-2008) and OK Black (2008-2020).
This most recent change, which passed 35-14 by the 49 OK Conference principals, means the OK Black, which Shores is a member of, will be eliminated.
The Sailors, along with fellow OK Black members GR Union, Reeths-Puffer and Muskegon move to the OK Green while Jenison moved to the OK Red, Kenowa Hills goes to the OK Gold and Fruitport finds itself in the OK Blue.
Joining the four teams from the OK Black in the new OK Green will be Wyoming, Holland, Zeeland West and Zeeland East. Union is the largest school with an enrollment of 1,696 students, and Shores is second with 1,227 while Zeeland East will be the smallest with 943.
“What this realignment is going to do for our program is going to depend on our program,” athletic director Todd Conrad said. “There are going to be some other schools that don’t have the programs that we are going to have, and that will prevent some scheduling difficulties and some competitive lopsidedness.”
Conrad added that even though there may be growing pains that come with the new alignment, it is a necessity, and once everyone adjusts to it, it might seem like more logical sense to be in the Green.
“The realignment criteria is based on three main factors: geography, enrollment, and number of programs and in terms of those three criteria; the OK Green seems like a good fit for us,” Conrad said, “especially because the Zeelands and Holland, being just south of us, is easier travel than heading down 96 to head to Grand Rapids.”
For the most part, coaches are excited about the challenges that the new conference brings.
“Zeeland East is typically a very strong baseball school,” said Brandon Bard, the baseball coach. “We split the conference with them my first year here back when they were a member of the OK Black. They are always a tough team.”
Jason Crago, who is the softball coach, agreed, and said he is excited for the new competition.
“Our new biggest competition will definitely be Zeeland West,” Crago said. “They are typically pretty good.”
While strong competition enters the conference, Bard said he will miss some of the rivalries that have been built.
“The biggest change will be the departure of two strong baseball schools in Jenison and Kenowa Hills,” Bard said. “We are adding teams like Holland and Wyoming that we haven’t typically played in the past, so that will be a big change.”
However, one happy consistency is the retention of Reeths-Puffer.
“The top team in the OK Black was Jenison,” Crago said. “And they will be the biggest competition who will be gone, but at least we get to keep our biggest rival Reeths-Puffer, which has had a pretty good record for softball.”
On top of the huge shift in competition, there will also be added mileage for teams traveling for games or competitions.
“In the old conference, we had a lot of local rivalries,” Crago said. “But in the new conference, we have farther competition, like Zeeland and Wyoming, which means one-hour rides on a bus to get to our games.”
However, just like Kermit, who finally realizes, “I am green and it’ll do fine. It’s beautiful and I think it’s what I want to be,” Shores should do just fine.