While perusing the MVL Forum some time ago, I came across a thread that asked readers to imagine all the Perry County teams were combined into one. The discussion was amusing for sure, and much was made of the fact that the team would have the best coaching staff in the state (Culver, Nutt & Williams) and would surely be a Division I contender. While the discussion was amusing and meant primarily for fun, it got me thinking about how dominant Perry County actually is in MVL play.

I started running some numbers; working on finding the geographical center of the MVL and determining, based on recent winning percentages how the winning percentage center deviated from the geographical center. I was looking to see how far south the winning percentage center would be. Unfortunately, once I worked back to 2003 the geographical center shifted with the inclusion of River View, and was skewed too far north for the center shift to show dramatically enough the dominance of the southern teams in the MVL. This being the case I decided to work out a more simplistic approach.

My second thought was to simply take the winning percentages of Perry County teams and compare them with the rest of the MVL. This was promising at first, but it soon became apparent that this method was too simple because it ignored the fact that most Perry County team losses come at the hands of other Perry County teams. For statistical purposes this would be like losing to your self. To alleviate this problem, I simply excluded the results of Perry County team games against other Perry County teams. Thus, I started to find, year by year, the record of Perry County schools vs. the rest of the MVL over the past 20 years. The following is what I found.

The past four seasons (2001-2004) have been shamefully dominated by Perry County. Over this time period Perry County has gone 70-8 (.897) vs. Non-PC teams. For what its worth four of those eight losses came against John Glenn, while River View, Maysville, Morgan, and West Muskingum are accountable for the others.

Going back one more year to 2000, we find the Perry County teams in a bit of a slump. In 2000 the County finished 7-14 (.333) vs. Non-PC teams. This was the season that Crooksville went winless, while Sheridan and New Lex went 5-2 and 2-5 respectively vs. Non-PC teams. 2000 would be the last slump of its size for some time however, as PC dominated the 1990s going 146-64 (.695) vs. Non-PC teams, and had only one season, 1991, under the .500 mark. The years from 1985 through 1989 were mediocre. The Perry County teams went a combined 54-51 during that period.

Perry County VS. Non-Perry County 1985-2004
Year by Year Year W L PCT 2004 16 2 0.889 2003 15 3 0.833 2002 20 1 0.952 2001 19 2 0.905 2000 7 14 0.333 1999 16 5 0.762 1998 15 6 0.714 1997 14 7 0.667 1996 15 6 0.714 1995 15 6 0.714 1994 15 6 0.714 1993 14 7 0.667 1992 13 8 0.619 1991 9 12 0.429 1990 20 1 0.952 1989 10 11 0.476 1988 6 15 0.286 1987 10 11 0.476 1986 16 5 0.762 1985 12 9 0.571	Team by Team Team W L PCT Sheridan 115 17 .871 Crooksville 95 43 .688 New Lexington 57 75 .432 Trend

Another measure of Perry County dominance can be seen in the MVL title distribution over the past 20 years. Of the 26 MVL champions of the past 20 years, 18 of them have been Perry County teams. Sheridan has 12, while New Lexington and Crooksville each have three titles.

The question that looms, however, is how much of the success of Perry County is due to Sheridan. Well, if we exclude Sheridan from the picture the two remaining Perry County teams have a combined record of 156-120 (.565), vs. Non-PC teams, a fall from 277-137 (.669) with Sheridan. And instead of having an 18-8 advantage in MVL titles, Perry County has a 6-8 deficit.

Whatever the boon Sheridan provides to Perry County's performance in MVL play, it is apparent where the Balance of Power rests in the Muskingum Valley League.