Written Saturday April 17th at 1:30 PM
There will be a new member of the OAA in 2021-2022 school
year beginning the winter.
The league as confirmed by accurate sources added Harper Woods as the 23rd school in the OAA. The Pioneers will join this winter after Ferndale University joined the OAA last season.
Harper Woods was in the Michigan Metro Athletic Conference last season. They were an independent for football and will be this season. The Pioneers will be in Division Two for the postseason and has 853 students in the district.
Harper Woods features every sport except for soccer, lacrosse, and water polo. They are known for their football and boys basketball presence.
Harper Woods has made the postseason in three straight years going 15-13 in that stretch. They ran into some powers in Division Three in Marysville and in Division Four against Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood and Birmingham Detroit Country Day. It will be very interesting to see how the Pioneers do in football after another year as an independent before coming to the OAA for the 2022-2023 school year.
The Pioneers weren’t themselves in Boys Basketball than in years past when they were a powerhouse. They went 4-9 and was last place in the Michigan Metro Athletic Conference Black Division with their wins over Detroit University Prep Science and Math and Taylor Prep both times last season. Harper Woods is well coached under Brandon Jenkins and have a pretty young team coming back this season.
The Pioneers girls basketball team had a very good year finishing at 7-3 which included two huge wins over Hamtramck and Ecorse to close the season. They are well coached under Paul Allen. Harper Woods girls like their boys have a ton of talent coming back next season.
Thoughts
I’m not too keen on the league accepting schools from Wayne County and Harper Woods would be the first school that is not in Oakland County to be in the OAA.
Harper Woods has a lot of sports to choose from except for soccer, lacrosse, and water polo. Their girls basketball program was very good last season but their boys basketball team has been typically solid all be it playing bigger schools. Their football program has been solid.
I think Harper Woods would do very well in future rivalries with Ferndale, Ferndale University, Royal Oak, Berkley, Southfield Arts and Tech, and Oak Park. I’m not sure how they would do against schools north of M-59 and especially north of Silver Bell Road.
It will be interesting to see what happens but the Pioneers should be ready to go this winter.
Stay tuned to OAA Now for the latest on this developing story.
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