The O-K Gold Conference will undergo some heavy changes in membership, starting with the 2016-17 athletic fall season.
The league will say good-bye to Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills, which is leaving for the White, and to Grand Rapids Catholic Central, which will move to the Blue. The league at the same time will say hello to East Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids Christian and Forest Hills Eastern. The changes will leave the Gold with seven members instead of its current six.
Meanwhile, the O-K Silver Conference, of which Hopkins is a member, will welcome the addition of Belding to its current lineup, bringing that league to seven schools as well.
Athletic directors from all current O-K Conferences agreed to realignments Wednesday overwhelmingly. Highlights in the changes include elimination of the O-K Bronze Division and the addition of Fruitport and Spring Lake.
There will be seven conferences with 50 schools covering seven West Michigan counties. The O-K Red will have eight schools. The OK White, Black, Green, Gold, Blue and Silver each will include seven schools.
The O-K Gold schools and their current high school student populations will include: East Grand Rapids (975), Grand Rapids Christian (905), Middleville (883), Wayland (852), Forest Hills Eastern (828), Hastings (809) and South Christian (625).
The O-K Silver: Kelloggsville (640), Belding (623), Godwin Heights (602), Hopkins (503) Lee (491), Calvin Christian (360) and NorthPointe Christian (345).
