The Eastlake North Football team is entering unfamiliar territory this fall.
For the first time in program history, the Rangers will compete in the Chagrin Valley Conference, joining the Lake Division alongside Chardon, Harvey, Lakeside, Lutheran West, Madison and South.
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For head coach Shawn Dodd, the move marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter while also closing the book on years of competition in the Western Reserve Conference.
“It’s a new opportunity,” Dodd said. “It’s exciting. It’s fresh, for sure.”
The transition brings new opponents and new goals, but it also means leaving behind relationships built over years of competition.
“I’m going to miss some of the relationships I’ve had with the coaches we’ve battled against in the WRC,” Dodd said. “Guys like Coach (Dave) Bors, Coach (Mitch) Hewitt, Coach (Jeff) Grubich and all those kind of guys. Those relationships are pretty cool and they’re really important to me.”
Fortunately for Dodd, not every familiar face is disappearing.
North has played several of its new conference rivals in recent seasons, including South, Harvey and Lakeside. The Rangers also open the 2026 season against Hawken, another program Dodd knows well.
“We still get Coach (Matt) Duffy at South, so that’s fun,” Dodd said. “The last couple of years we’ve been able to play Harvey and Lakeside, and we’ve built relationships with those guys. We open with Hawken this year, and I’ve known Coach Marin Hard for a long, long time.”
Those existing relationships should help ease the transition, but Dodd knows the weekly grind of the Lake Division will present a different challenge. Chardon has long been one of Northeast Ohio’s premier programs, Madison has enjoyed recent success, and every week promises a physical battle.
The Rangers believe they’ll be ready.
North enters preseason camp with a roster that has impressed the coaching staff throughout the offseason—not only with its strength, but with its attitude.
“This is a very coachable group,” Dodd said. “These guys really take coaching well, which is exciting. They work hard, they’re aggressive and they’re physical.”
That competitive edge has occasionally forced the coaching staff to slow the players down during summer workouts.
“We kind of have to pull them back a little bit during camps and seven-on-seven because they compete so hard,” Dodd said. “I’d much rather have that problem than trying to light a fire under guys and get them motivated.”
The commitment has been especially evident in the weight room.
Dodd believes this could be one of the strongest teams North has fielded during his tenure.
“This is one of—if not the strongest—teams we’ve had,” he said. “We’ll probably have somewhere between eight and 10 guys benching over 300 pounds. They’ve really done a nice job in the weight room.”
The Rangers may not rely on blazing speed, but Dodd likes the makeup of his roster.
“We have a lot of size,” he said. “We’re not the fastest or most athletic team, but we definitely have some size. We’ve got some guys with a little wiggle to them, but we’re definitely not going to win a track meet.”
As North prepares to kick off its first season in the CVC, the excitement surrounding the program extends beyond simply changing conferences.
The conference is new. The opponents may be different. But the expectations inside the North locker room remain exactly the same.
