COLUMBUS -- The administration of Little Miami Schools continuously monitors student enrollment trends, which provides The District the data needed for future planning in all areas of education management. And it's no secret, that Ohio's largest school district by volume (98 square miles), has enrollment numbers which are on a continuously vertical pace upward which also impacts Panther Athletics. Therefore, for the first time since Little Miami's inception in 1954, the OHSAA named Panther football and LMHS as one of the 70 largest schools in the state, which catapults the Panthers from D-II, Region 8 into D-I, Region 4.

The move obviously plays a change in who Little Miami will play in OHSAA postseason action, but it will not effect Little Miami's Eastern Cincinnati Conference affiliation or their regular season schedule. "Our move into the ECC at the beginning 2020-21 school year, initially prompted an uncomfortable adjustment to extremely competitive competition on a regular basis," said athletic director Matt Louis, "but now we're acclimated to playing high level competition on consistent basis and that's the expectation well into the future. "We've been planning and preparing for this week's realignment news for football for some time, and we're looking forward to great success in the future." Read more about this week's news in WCPO 9's story by Mike Dyer HERE!

Little Miami opens the 2024 regular season at Springboro on Friday, August 23 at 7 PM at CareFlight Field under the direction of first-year head coach Arryn Chenault. The complete 2024 schedule can be found HERE!