The State of Jefferson: A SimCity 4 multi-sport dynasty

[Young Drachma]

The idea behind this is something I'd always wanted to do and never have. I basically wanted to create a fictional place using SimCity 4, create communities each with their own character and such, then play out the leagues, rivalries and different sports for each of them.

Simtropolis actually has a place for 'city journals', but this is a much better place to post a dynasty and so..I'd just prefer to do it here.

I think if I do this right, you'll get to see a variety of different sports here, you'll get to know these communities in their infancy and as time goes on, when they grow up and as things change.

I'd like to start a high school league and see how that goes, perhaps do a little league and of course, explore the rivalries between the various colleges in the community via 2K Sports College Hoops 2K7 and NCAA Football 2K7. I'll use OOTP for the baseball stuff. I might even get EHM or WWSM into the act, but given how less customizable they are, it's not for sure that we'll be able to do that.

Anyway...here we go.

[Young Drachma]

The name of the place we're dealing with is called Oregano County. There isn't any particular reason for the name, other than...that's just what it's called. It's not in a particular state, though I like to imagine it as geographically somewhere in the south, just because of how close to sea level it is and how it looks, but culturally something similar to a northeastern area.

Here's a somewhat cloudy, yet aerial view of the place:



Here is a clearer vision of the area so far:



City folk seeking a quieter, comfortable lifestyle are moving in like wildfire. Oakley is the largest city in the county and is the county seat at just over 23,000 people. It's growing fast though.

Brookmont is the main university town in the county and has about 12,000 people or so...but that's deceiving as the majority of the town are college students and there are probably only about 2 or 3,000 people there who aren't college affiliated. The schools there are Brookmont University and a women's college that's also there, but is loosely affiliated with BU called Oakmont College. It's also home to the largest state university in the area.

But we'll talk more about that later.

Mannesylvania (Man-NES-lyvania) is the 2nd largest town right now with almost 10,000 people and is sorta the largest area in the 'back country' as the southwest part of the county away from the water is called.

I think the first place we'll take you all to, is Brookmont.

[Young Drachma]

I can't tell you how Brookmont got deemed the place where all the colleges would go. But that's precisely what it is.

It's home to the prestigious Brookmont University which is one of the best private liberal arts universities in the country. Bar. none. The school only has a total enrollment (graduate + undergraduate) of 13,290 or so. And some of that are students who take online classes, so I'd say at any one time..there are probably only about 11,000 students or so on campus.

Anyway..let's take a look at the campus, shall we?

Here is an aerial view of Brookmont University.


You can also see in this picture, Oakmont College for Women. They only have about 2,900 undergraduates enrolled there and the women are allowed to take classes at Brookmont, which is overwhelmingly male (and a sort of contention for many..) . Oakmont is a pretty good school, it's tough to get into and it's also declining in terms of its enrollment.

But their arrangement with Brookmont allows them a lot of flexibility as the two schools share a common library and other facilities and some liberal arts programs. They haven't merged, but there is talk of it.


This is the Tech Center. It's a technology incubator, development center and pretty much the most kick ass technical place around. Here they host a supercomputer and all sorts of other crap. I dunno know what they do. I just know they do a lot, they do it well and that lots of smart folks hang out there.

Next, we'll go downtown and check stuff out there.

Good times.

[Young Drachma]

Downtown Brookmont is home to University Square, where pretty much the heartbeat of the town is. Bars, banks, restaurants and whatever else are all here. It's a rockin' adventure. Or you know, not that great..but not that bad for a town that lives and dies by the student population.



Brookmont has two Starbucks, a Burger King, an IHOP and you can see Blockbuster in that picture too.

If you look on the up on the far right, you can see the University Soccer Stadium and their Museum of Art and Culture. In the down far right hand corner of University and Stadium is the coolest dive bar in the county (I think...) It's called Abber's Brewery Restaurant. They brew their own suds there and they make an awesome burger. They also serve vegetarian fare in case you date one of those greeny chicks from Oakwood.

University Square is largely frequented by the Brookmont/Oakwood set. You won't many students from the state university hanging out down here. Main reason? Tension is usually pretty high and the two groups just plum don't like each other. At all.

[Young Drachma]

Olde State University is the largest state university in the region. It's home to about 18,300 undergraduate and graduate students.

It's not the flagship state university or anything like that, but it's a good, middle of the road school.

Some of their most famous alums in recent years have been comedians. I know, that's funny. In the past, the school has always been known for its excellent creative writing program and the fact that it has more teachers teaching in the state than any other school.

Here's an aerial view of the entire city at night.



The OSU students like to point out while the nexus of city nightlife converges around University Square and they choose to avoid it, they like to let everyone know that "we have the Wal-Mart", as the Brookmont Wal-Mart is right down the road from the university.

Of course, the retort from BU students usually goes, "they only put it there so you all could get to work easier after you graduate."

[Young Drachma]

THE BATTLE FOR UNIVERSITY AVENUE
This matchup is called The Battle of University Road for one reason. The winner of the season series between the two schools in all sports are tallied and all summer long, whichever school has the most wins, gets to 'claim' University Avenue, which is almost so far from Olde State, that it's not worth bothering. But....that adds insult to injury because almost every year, it's won by the Rams and each year, they 'paint' near University Square in the colours of the OSU Rams, Red and Brown.

The Brookmont Wolverines feature no real stars. In fact, they're pretty terrible. Their best player is Washington, D.C. native Souleymane Cunningham, a 6'5" guard, who brings it every night.

He could have played at much bigger and better schools, but he got a full ride at Brookmont and his mother basically said that "all of that ball doesn't matter," but she didn't need to convince him, he knew what a degree from a school like Brookmont meant.

"Man, anyone can go to the NBA. But getting a top tier degree? That'll set you for life."

Meanwhile, on the Olde State side, the Rams come equipped with three playmakers. Nigerian center Keydren Fadipe, freshman point guard extraordinaire Britton Macklin and junior captain, Canadian Chris Parada plays shooting forward.

The heavily favoured Olde State squad is that way for a reason. They're experienced, they are good enough to win the conference this year and it seems that no one really expects Brookmont to win.

After all, the last Brookmont victory in this rivalry game -- which is only played once a year, rather than twice -- was in 1997.

[Young Drachma]

On the road at Olde State might be just down the road, but playing at the Peters Athletic Center (the PAC) is a very daunting experience.

But the Wolverines have a quiet confidence about them, that might bode well in this game.

We. shall. see.

[Young Drachma]

FIRST HALF

First things first, the PAC was loud. It was insane in there. And it seemed like there was more Brown and Red than I'm used to seeing, but...I guess you have to expect that with it being their home court, but the contingent of Brookmont fans who bothered to come couldn't be heard. This place was literally shaking from the moment the game started.

Scoring was low for the good part of the first half, with Olde State hodling on to a 6-2 lead after the first five minutes of the game.

Cunningham couldn't buy a bucket and the Wolverines didn't get a field goal for the first six minutes of the game, with their only two points coming from free throws.

Cunningham broke that streak at about 14:21 with a three pointer to close the gap to 8-5 and then on a fast break after a steal, he basically jammed it in like the ball was something he'd gotten illegally. Once this kid turns it on, there isn't a whole lot anyone can do about it, that's for sure.

The Wolverines rebounding kept them in this game, because there isn't any reason with the playmakers on the State squad, that they should have had a shot in this game.

Fadipe from Olde State is a really nice player. He's a big man, but he shoots the long range shot like Dirk and a fadeaway jump hook like Hakeem.

Cunningham is getting frustrated you can tell with just over 10 minutes left in the first half. They're down 16-10 and he's not only not getting the calls, but their just beating him down. It's got to be hard being the only good player on a team. Olde State leads the battle of the board 10-7 and both teams currently have six steals apiece.

The real difference is the fact that Olde State is shooting 61% so far, while Brookmont is shooting just 25%, the fact that they're only down by 4 at the moment must be some sort of miracle and if Cunningham can get himself into the game, they might be able to pull off the upset.

Macklin just hit a jump shot that had "beauty" written on it, to put the Rams up 18-12 with about 8 minutes to go in the first half.

And as the clock winds down, it's hard to think anything other than the Wolverines are just overmatched here. 13 defensive rebounds by OSU in this half, because it seems the Wolverines can't buy a shot.

22-12 lead for Olde State, both teams have mass subbed with about six minutes to go.

The Wolverines bench might be reading this, because they've come in and done more in about 1:30 than the starters did all game. They're playing hustle basketball on both ends of the floor and are really outplaying the 2nd team of the Rams. Too bad these two can't be the ones to play, because it might be a different result.

It's still early, but it's hard to see how the Wolverines can win if Cunningham doesn't get any looks.

Seems that Brookmont is trying to do too much and so, they've had chances here in the last four minutes or so, to close the 27-16 gap, but they're not able to convert on their rebounding opportunities.

What I can't tell currently is, whether the Olde State players really are 'that' good or if it's the futility of Brookmont that's making them look like the Pistons out there.

2 minutes to go and the score is 29-17, Olde State.

Wow, another 3 by Olde State. Boy, these kids are not joking around now. 35-20 with less than a minute to go, Olde State has this thing locked down now. They lead the rebounding battle 17-13 and all of their boards are defensive rebounds.

As the Wolverines run out the clock to try to end the half, I have to say that this Olde State squad is playing like this is an NBA game. And this arena is STILL rocking as if the game just started.

Halftime score 37-21. Alando Gatson leads all scorers with 12 points, 5-5 from the floor. He's not one of the big three for them, so that's pretty impressive.

Cunningham has 10 points, 4 boards and 3 steals so far tonight, but also leads his team with 4 turnovers.

[Young Drachma]

SECOND HALF
Brookmont is 5 of 6 from the free throw line, while OSU hasn't been to the line all day.

Parada just jammed it down the throat of one of the BU defenders and early in the 2nd half, it's 41-23 OSU.

Two consecutive baskets for the Wolverines and now they've secured another rebound. But before they can get carried away, they give the ball away again and Brookmont is toying with them like a dog with a dog toy.

OSU leads the battle on the boards 18-15 so far.

We're down to 17 minutes left in the 2nd half, with OSU up 43-29, with Fadipe just having scored on one of his patented hook shots in the paint. He's seriously got to be a first rounder on everyone's list and he's still learning.

I give the coach of this Broomont squad a lot of credit. His kids don't give up, they don't show any signs of being disappointed and they are playing their hearts out, despite being overmatched. I can tell that they are well coached, they just don't know how to execute consistently and they don't have the talent to play well enough to really make things happen.

But Cunningham is a star in the making, no doubt about it. They're really expecting him to do it all and against an opponent like this, that's just not possible.

13 minutes to go and the score is 49-38, Olde State.

This game isn't out of reach, but after that long range 3 the Wolverines just missed, it makes you believe that they're just not sure how to win this game, but that they want it bad. Meanwhile, OSU looks somewhere between bored and unable to deal with the constant pressure of not being able to get the shots they want off against this Wolverine zone defense.

BU has done a great job of forcing the other players to step up outside of the Big 3. The thing is, that's precisely what those guys have done to keep OSU comfortably ahead.

Less than 10 minutes to go and the score is 53-40.

The difference in this half, is that the Wolverines have figured out how to share the ball more with each other and it's resulting in taking more time off of the clock and slowing down the game tempo dramatically. If they could manage to score, it would be a lot more enjoyable. But nothing is worse than seeing a guy get 4 rebounds off missed shots and still not be able to put it in for 2. But that just happened.

Ugh.

8 minutes to go, 55-42 OSU leads.

Three straight threes for Cunningham and it looks like he's decided to take the game into his own hands with less than 7 minutes to go.

But he's come up cold with less than 5 to go, down 11, 62-51.

This game has been a crazy matchup with all of the rebounding by both of these teams. 66-51, with less than 4 to go, OSU has brought in the 2nd teamers to mop up the floor on this one and the arena is still just as loud as it was when we got started.

What do they put in the water on this side of town?

66-54 after a three by Cunningham, with 2:45 to go. The way that Olde State has been managing the clock all game, they're not going to give this one up.

OSU leads the battle in the paint 36-18 and now it seems that their playmakers have decided to make it from wherever they want on the court. Parada just made a 17 footer that was all net.

Just a minute to go. This rivalry game was exciting in terms of its atmosphere, especially since the State fans really come out in droves from this one, people from all over the state manage to check this game.

OSU just pulled their starters for good, as the clock winds down.

Christian Blizzard for Brookmont has been solid today surprising us all with 9 rebounds, 5 points and 3 assists.

Final score 73-56, OSU

Cunningham led all scores with 32 points today, 7 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 assists. Given the pressure they put on him, that's quite a coup.

Meanwhile both Gatson and Parada scored 24 and 23 respectively for the Rams. Parada also had 9 rebounds and six assists. Point guard Clement Couisnard had 10 assists for the Rams.

In the end, the Wolverines simply didn't have enough firepower to keep up, as we expected from the start.

We'll see you next year.

[Young Drachma]

Next, we're going to take a tour of some of the other towns and areas of Oregano County. Maybe get ready for high school baseball season? I'm not sure. But nonetheless, we'll go around the area and give you the scoop on the other communities that make up the county.

In case you forgot what it looks like, here's the aerial view of the entire county:



Now I'm going to go through and do town-by-town accounts of the areas we have now, and perhaps those to come...

[Young Drachma]

The first place we'll go on our tour is the town of Sandy Lakes. (Pop. 6,083)

To stick to the university theme, the first place we'll see is the University of St. Teresa, a private university of about 8,000 total enrollment. Their music programs are pretty top notch.



The Shipyards are over in the 'Shippen' section of town. It was originally settled by the dockworkers who worked in the docks and it's still settled largely by working class families.



The centerpiece of the Shippen area is Hobart Park. It's pretty much 'the' nexis of places to hang out in town.



To the northwest of the Shippen area is the county fairgrounds, a few farms and in the right corner, you can see the newly built Sandy Lakes Golf Club.



The fairgrounds sit near the shores of South Lake.


Another new addition to town, largely because of its proximity to Oakley, is the Oregano Regional Sportsplex. It's a gleaming new athletic facility hosting soccer, baseball and softball. There are rumours of an arena coming to the arena too, but as of yet, it hasn't happened. The kids just call it 'The Plex'



Back to South Lake. Here is the South Lake Marina.



Finally, in Olde Town Sandy (as it's called), the main street right off the lake is Old Commerce Avenue. It's home to shops and other fare and in recent years, is undergoing some sort of transformation into something more touristy and representative of 'old time' Sandy Lake. It's not really done yet, but I guess they're getting there.

[Eaglesfan27]

Great job. I'm reading along (and getting the urge to fire up Sim City 4 again.)

[Young Drachma]

We're going to go to Lake Refuge now. It's called "Lake Ray-foo" by the locals. Have no idea why they do that. But that's pretty much what it's referred to.



Here is the Southside section of town. It's pretty quaint and suburban feeling. In recent years, people have been continuing to move from Oakley and commuting to town from Lake Refuge.

Here is Middle Island. It's home to the Federal Prison nicknamed Last Refuge. That's part of why Lake Refuge was home to poor people for a while. It's become more and more gentrified in recent years, but...you still meet people who work at the prison more often than not.



Here is the North Island.



This bridge will take you from the Southside to the North Island

[Young Drachma]

Now we're in Oakley. The largest city and county seat of Oregano County. It's really the center and 'where it all happens.'

Here's the center of town, Veterans Square. It's a pretty cool place, it's a park mostly, but it also has a veterans cemetery. Veterans Square is also right near the high school, which is visible in one of these shots.





I have to take more pictures. I thought I did and well, I must not have. I'll get on that.

Speaking of places where I need to get more photos, here's the main part of Manneslyvania called Curry. You can see Mannes HS and the field in this picture.

[Young Drachma]

While we're waiting for more pictures, let's get you introduced to the local high school baseball league.

The Oregano County HS Baseball League (OCHSBL) began in 1961, after the county decided to stage its own baseball league for high school students.

The six charter schools were:

Brookmont HS (Barracudas)
Lake Refuge HS (Catamarans)
Mannes HS (Famers)
North Curry HS (Canucks)
Oakley HS (Oaks)
Sandy Lakes HS (Dolphins)

At that time, West Oakley and Oakley students went to the same high school, because there were too few students in West Oakley to warrant their own HS or so the local officials decided when they entered into an agreement with Oakley in the 1940s.

The teams have 25-man rosters, with 35-man rosters in total, meaning they can include up to 10 JV players on their roster during the season.

There are no roster limits at the JV level.

The varsity season is 32 games. The JV schedule lasts 26. There are no playoffs at the JV level.

[Young Drachma]

Here is the way I set the league up:

3-man rotations
Pitcher endurance: High (HS kids often play both ways and kids will start sometimes and pitch relief other times. I figured it was good to have the teams be flexible)

DH is in effect at the varsity and JV levels.

Season begins March 10th.

[Young Drachma]

Here are the Oregano County Champions from 1961-1970:

1961 - Brookmont
1962 - Mannes
1963 - Oakley
1964 - Oakley
1965 - Mannes
1966 - Brookmont
1967 - Mannes
1968 - Mannes
1969 - Oakley
1970 - North Curry

At the end of the 1970 season, the OCHSBL voted to allow the six private schools into the league. The private schools were a separate subleague playing the same number of games.

There wasn't a real desire for a new round of playoffs, but, in the desire to maintain the consistency built over the years, they agreed to one.

So now, there would be a League Championship (best-of-five) for the new Public School League (PSL) and League of Private Schools (LPS) and the winners of their respective leagues would face off for the first team all year in the Oregano County Championship.

Some were heartbroken at opening up the OCC to non-public schools, but with increasing enrollments in those schools, it only made sense and it increased the cache of Oregano County baseball as a whole.

The six new schools were:

Brookmont Academy
Academy of St. Teresa
Oakley Baptist
Mannes Christian
Seaside Catholic (Sandy Lakes)
Oakley Catholic

[Young Drachma]

Here are the Oregano County Champions from 1971 to 1980.

1971 Oakley HS d. Oakley Catholic
1972 Mannes Christian d. North Curry
1973 Brookmont Academy d. Lake Refuge
1974 Academy of St. Teresa d. North Curry
1975 Brookmont d. Oakley Catholic
1976 Academy of St. Teresa d. Lake Refuge
1977 Oakley HS d. Oakley Catholic
1978 Academy of St. Teresa d. Brookmont
1979 Mannes Christian d. Sandy Lakes
1980 Oakley HS d. Brookmont Academy

[Young Drachma]

Time for more pictures!

We're going to head back to Manneslyvania:

Mannesylvania is a town of nearly 9,000 people, but despite that large population, the town is segmented to be something of a sprawled community. So it's doesn't have the feel of an Oakley or a North Curry, both of which are more metropolitan in the way they are setup.


Here is the Birchmont section of town.



Here's a picture of Birchmont and Depot Plaza, where -- you guessed it -- there is a railroad depot.



Another aerial shot of the Curry section of town.



An aerial view of all of Mannesylvania

[Young Drachma]

Back to Oakley now.





This picture is of the downtown rail depots in Oakley. There are two next to each other and it's kinda cool. There is the old depot and the new one.





More downtown pictures...



The industrial section of Oakley:



Oakley Catholic HS is here:



Aerial view of the downtown area and the lake area:

[Young Drachma]

West Oakley

West Oakley is a small community of about 1,600 people. It's nothing more than a sleepy bedroom community for Oakley. Property values are the highest in the county.









North Curry
North Curry has about 6,500 residents. It's most famous for being home to the county's only international airport. It's a growing community and its location in the northeast part of the county away from Oakley and being home to the airport gives it a unique ability to attract quality businesses and people seeking a more suburban lifestyle in an otherwise rural part of the county.










Oregano County International Airport is located in North Curry.

[Young Drachma]

In 1981, a referendum between the Oakley, West Oakley and Lake Refuge ended up creating two new high schools. A third high school, a county magnet school for gifted students was also created that year.

Lake Refuge HS was closed in 1981 and that town and southeast part of Oakley merged to create East Lake HS (Otters). The other high school was created from West Oakley and the southwest part of Oakley. That new school was called Robinson Memorial HS (Pioneers).

The magnet high school is based in Oakley, in the downtown area and is called Oregano County Magnet HS (Ducks)

[Young Drachma]

As I told you all, the communities began to keep growing around the mid-1980s as more and more people began to literally flee the cities to find a quieter lifestyle. The Oregano County area was spurred on largely through a variety of preferential tax programs that really encouraged people to move to the area.

With this many programs encouraging and more and more development, new communities were beginning to form out in the unincorporated areas of Western Oregano County, which had originally been nothing more than forest and hunting land (you should've seen the buck I shot a few years back out there...)

Anyway, as a result of this growth, the Oregano County Commission chartered four new towns in 1988.

[Young Drachma]

Here are the Oregano County Champions from 1981-1987:

1981: Academy of St. Teresa d. Oakley HS
1982: Sandy Lakes HS def. Academy of St. Teresa
1983: Oakley HS def. Academy of St. Teresa
1984: Seaside Catholic HS d. Oakley HS
1985: Oakley Baptist HS d. Sandy Lakes HS
1986: Oakley Baptist HS d. Oakley HS
1987: Robinson Memorial d. Academy of St. Teresa

[Young Drachma]

Oregano County's growth during the late 80s led to a variety of new areas being developed out in the eastern part of the county that was previously undeveloped. These new areas resulted in several new towns and cities being built.

The first of those was the City of Charlestown:



The Parkmont section of Charlestown is the 'main' area of the city or at least, home to the most economic affluent residents in the city. Charlestown is a middle to upper class city with about 20,000 people. For an area that was pretty much all country 20 years ago, the recent growth has been staggering.



The Charlestown Academy was founded by parents who children lived in the region and who wanted them to be educated in a classical liberal arts setting. The school remains today as a testament to their original vision on a sprawling 14-acre campus near Parkmont in Charlestown. The school expects to join the OCHSBL in 1988.



Charlestown High School has been consistently named a blue ribbon school by the US Department of Education and was considered an anomaly in that, the school didn't field any high school sports teams. In the past seven years, significantly increasing enrollments have increased the demand for such activities and will result in the school joining the Oregano County Leagues in most sports in 1988.



The Charlestown University Medical School is one of the leaders in the research of rare cancers that affect the brains of certain wild animals.



Charlestown is also home to Charlestown Catholic HS:

[Young Drachma]

The city of Lake Almonte is actually home to two separate townships. The first is the Town of South Charlestown.



Palmer Island is a village within South Charlestown. It is home to the prestigious Palmer Island School. It is the only private school founded for hard of hearing and deaf students in the state.



South Charlestown itself is a largely residential community, but unlike its neighbor due south in Charlestown, it actually has a relatively developing commercial sector. Because of its locale on the cusp of two other cities (Lake Refuge & Sandy Lakes), it's positioned well for more growth and economic opportunities, plus, as Charlestown continues to grow, more people are leaving there to live in South Charlestown.

The community has about 14,000 people.

It has its own high school, which was built just two years ago called South Charlestown High School.



Here is "downtown" South Charlestown, which is comprised mostly of the main street called Commerce Avenue.



The other community in the city of Lake Almonte is the Town of Almonte, a small bedroom community of just over 3,000. There aren't many families in Almonte with school age children (it's mostly a retirement community), but for the few who do have kids that age, they either go to South Lake in Lake Refuge or a few choose to go to South Charlestown since it's been open.

[Young Drachma]

Here are the Oregano County Champions from 1988-1990:

1988: Mannes HS def. Charlestown Academy
1989: Charlestown HS def. Charlestown Academy
1990: Charlestown Catholic def. East Lake HS

[nilodor]

Cool dynasty, I'm enjoying reading it.

[Young Drachma]

You really can't speak to the rapid growth of the entire Oregano County area without taking a visit to what Oakley, the county seat, looked like in the 1980s compared to the 'quaint' locale that we visited less than 20 years ago.

Here is the view from Veterans Square:



The Bank of America tower, as well as the new Oakley Aquarium right on the lake there, tells you all you need to about how much the area has grown. Some estimates have the city over 80,000 and growing (I've seen estimates that say it's over 100,000..but can't substantiate that), though that number fluctuates with the outmigration to the suburbs that continues.

Here is the new regional airport in Oakley. Chamber of Commerce and business leaders pushed hard to get this thing built, but no one could manage to get them the green light to put it anywhere in town. So they had to go across the river to get it done. It's not anything near the size of the airport in North Curry, but...it's better than what they had before, which was nothing.



Here is a picture of the West Side of Oakley. This area was empty for a while, but the lure of jobs in the industrial sector in the 1970s, fueled the growth of an area really to put otherwise low-income, working class people. The decline of the industrial areas of Oakley in favour of more high-tech and commercial interests have sent this area in a tailspin, as its residents just don't have jobs.

Their high school, West Side HS, opened in 1983.



Just around the way, you can see a picture here of the South Side of Oakley. When state officials came to Oakley in the 1970s, seeking the chance to build a brand new state university here -- owing to the rapid growth of the region -- this area was crafted largely in response to that appeal.

Now, the State University at Oakley (SUO) sits right in the heart of the South Side. It's a largely residential area otherwise and has a growing art community in recent years, as graduates have been choosing to stay in Oakley after they graduate. The South Side is home to South Side HS, which was built largely because council members from the South Side balked at the West Side getting their own HS, but not giving one to the South Side, despite the larger population there.

The South Side is also home to the Oakley Zoo, which funny enough, is next door to the university. As a result, the zoology and animal science programs at SUO are some of the best in the nation.

It wouldn't be a city, if there was no mall, right? The highly anticipated Oregano County Mall was built in 1985, after three towns attempted to persuade developers to choose their locale for the first major shopping mall in the entire county. Oakley touted its size and diverse elements as the advantage for the location, allocated land and managed to get the prize.



In that picture above, you can also see the edge of the North Side of Oakley, which is the area just south of Veterans Square and has its own high school, (Tarrance Cawley HS, after a former mayor of Oakley) serving the residential area by the mall, as well as the rest of the North side)

[Young Drachma]

In 1991, a variety of changes led to a new divisional alignment (originally started in 1988) in both the public and private school leagues.

Robinson Memorial became an alternative high school and eliminated its varsity athletic programs.

West Oakley voters approved a measure to create a new high school of their own. The new name is West Forest HS. The reason? They wanted to dissociate themselves from anything Oakley in their school names, being afraid colleges might think their students went to school in that city, rather than the small hamlet of West Oakley.

Three Oakley schools (West Side, East Side and Tarrance Cawley (North Side)) all approved measures to add varsity sports programs, including baseball. Following this move, all four public Oakley schools were added to their own division (Union division) in the PSL.


Curry Central HS (West Curry) was opened in 1990 and voted to enter the PSL.

Two private schools -- Condotti Academy (Charlestown) and Romero-Finniski (Brookmont) were voted into the LPS.

The alignment starting in 1991 for both leagues were as follows:

PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Union Division
----
East Side
West Side
Oakley
Tarrance Cawley (North Side)

American
-----
Brookmont
Charlestown
North Curry
Curry Central
South Charlestown

National
---
West Forest (West Oakley)
East Lake
Mannes
Oregano County Magnet
Sandy Lakes


LEAGUE OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Blue Division
----
Brookmont Academy
Charlestown Prep (formerly Charlestown Academy)
Oakley Baptist

White Division
----
Virtue HS (formerly Mannes Christian)
Condotti Academy (Charlestown)
Romero-Finniski (Brookmont)

Red Division
----
Charlestown Catholic
Oakley Catholic
Seaside Catholic
Academy of St. Teresa

Starting in 1991, the OCHSBL playoffs will be as follows:

Division champions and wild cards will play:

Sectional Championship (best-of-three games)
League Championship (best-of-five games)
Oregano County Championship (best-of-five games)

[Young Drachma]

Two private schools also joined the LPS in 1998:

Seminary Prep (South Charlestown)
Almonte Christian (Almonte)

[Young Drachma]

1998 will mark a year to remember, as five of the colleges in Oregano County agreed to create a new collegiate baseball conference - The Lakeside Five Conference, to begin play in 1999.

Brookmont University
Olde State University
State University at Oakley
University of St. Teresa
Charlestown University

[Young Drachma]

And then there were six.


The Lakeside Five became the Lakeside Six before a pitch was even thrown. Condotti-Vanguard University
in Charlestown agreed to become the sixth school to join the league for the 1999 season.

The league's 52-game season will start in May. The top two teams will face off at the end of the season for a best-of-five Conference Championship.

This venue provides a direct outlet for the best high school players in Oregano County to have an opportunity to play on at the next level, right in their own backyard.

The college league's ages are from 18-23 and the HS league plays from 13-17.

[Young Drachma]

I made the college league a summer league on purpose, I wanted high school kids to be able to make the move at the end of their senior years directly to the college league, so it's possible to track a kid from his first year on the JV team in HS all the way to his senior year of college.

[Swaggs]

Very cool idea for a dynasty.

You are tempting me to fire up Sim City 4.

[Young Drachma]

Okay, let's go back to Curry. Things there are...well..growth is a funny thing how that works.

Curry's population is over 23,000 now and one of the big problems with that is, the fact that the community simply hasn't been able to keep pace with the increased numbers in terms of creating more jobs. So the unemployment rate there is soaring.

Anyway, that's another discussion for another day. You want pictures!

Here's an aerial of North Cury as it is right now:



Well one thing you weren't aware of, was the new state university in North Curry. It was originally just a 2-year college, but a referendum among the locals and some state funding, turned their little 2-year school into Curry State University.



Remember the airport? It's still here and still one of three in the entire county to date. And still the largest...



Curry Central High School, home of the Blue Jays is right here. The joke is that from above, it looks like a prison. Draw your own conclusions about what that says about the neighborhood it serves...but...that's the joke.



Here is North Curry High School, the oldest high school in town. North Curry is weird (for the moment) in that, there are no private schools there, so the students pretty much go to either of the public high schools or they go out of town to high school elsewhere.

[Young Drachma]

Remember there were four new cities incorporated by Oregano County back in 1991? Well, the fourth one was really the "little town that could" with just a few hundred people there at the time.

Fast forward nine years later and the town of Fishers Village is home to about 3,000 people and is the most remote part of Oregano County.



A largely agarian community, Fishers Village is really a step back in time. In recent years, it's become home to people attempting to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big city, who want a quiet, country lifestyle and here..they get that and then some. The debates in this town are usually so rancorous, that you get a big fight on your hands if you ask to pave a country road for more street traffic.



In the distance, you're able to see the high school with the smallest enrollment in Oregano County -- Village Jr/Sr High School. Their ballfields are nice, though. And starting in 2002, you'll get to see them, since they'll be joining the OCHSBL.

[Young Drachma]

Within rural Charlestown, there have emerged several villages. The most prominent are the twin villages of Deerfield and East Deerfield.

Originally an area covered by farmland, the area is emerging as a hamlet for residential homes in recent years.



The area is served by Deerfield High School


Due south of East Deerfield, is the community of Wardlaw. It's the smallest village within Charlestown and borders two other communities including Lake Almonte.



Just west of Wardlaw, is the Ghostbrook Estates community. Ghostbrook Estates is home to The Ghostbrook School, a prep high school for boys in grades 7-12. Their sister school, which I'll be introducing you to later, is the once all-girls and now coed Robinshire School. The girls at Robinshire, nickname the boys at Ghostbrook, the "Scary Creeps" after one too many 'fresh' boys having their way at socials. Boys will be boys? Beats me...

[Young Drachma]

If you thought that was rural, you've seen nothing yet. The area beyond Wardlaw, the villages southeastmost in the county are simply called "The Shire". In reality, it's about six villages that total population of about 6,700. Let's get acquainted with this very beautiful setting right in Oregano County.





Here is Robinshire. I mentioned it earlier as the home to The Robinshire School, a former all-girls and now coed prep school.





Northeast of Robinshire is the settlement of Antoinette. It is so named because of the very famous Antoinette Brewery which was founded there. While HQ has moved on to Oakley, the original brewery is right there and tours are offered daily.





Just west of Antoinette is the hamlet known as West York.




West of Robinshire is the village of Grossmont.



On the very eastern edge of The Shire and as a result, Oregano County, we have the village known as Scotch Woods.



The northeast corner of The Shire is home to the village of Kjelland (Shell-land)


Just down the road from Kjelland resides the high school for the entire Shire region. It's known as Far Woods High School.

[Young Drachma]

In 2001, the Lakeside Six conference invited two new schools to join and changed its name to the Lakeside Conference.

Curry State University (North Curry)
University of Saint Catherine (The Shire)

The Conference realigned to two four-team divisions

EASTERN DIVISION
---
Brookmont U.
Curry State
Olde State
State University at Oakley

WESTERN DIVISION
---
Condotti-Vanguard
Charlestown University
University of Saint Catherine
University of St. Teresa

[Young Drachma]

In 2002, the OCHSBL voted to realign its divisions to align schools by enrollment sizes, to accomodate the addition of two new programs, Deerfield HS and the co-op team of Village and Far Woods HS (Village-Far Woods)

The new alignment for 2002 is as follows:

PSL
----
Group 4
Oakley
North Curry
Brookmont
Charlestown

Group 3
South Charlestown
Curry Central
East Side
West Side

Group 2
Mannes
Oregano County Magnet
Tarrance Cawley
Sandy Lakes

Group 1
West Forest
Deerfield
Village-Far Woods
East Lake

LPS
---
Group A
Brookmont Academy
Oakley Catholic
Oakley Baptist
Charlestown Catholic

Group B
Academy of St. Teresa
Charlestown Prep
Seminary Prep
Condotti Academy

Group C
Virtue HS
Romero-Finniski
Seaside Catholic

Group D
Ghostbrook
Almonte Christian
Robinshire

[Young Drachma]

Here are the Oregano County Champions from 1991-2000

1991: East Side HS def. Virtue HS
1992: Mannes HS def. Romero-Finniski
1993: West Forest HS def. Virtue HS
1994: East Side HS def. Seaside Catholic
1995: East Side HS def. Brookmont Academy
1996: Seaside Catholic def. Oakley HS
1997: Mannes HS def. Brookmont Academy
1998: Brookmont Academy def. East Lake HS
1999: East Lake HS def. Oakley Baptist
2000: Brookmont Academy def. East Lake

The Lake Six Conference Champions:

SU-Oakley (44-11) def. Olde State (36-16) 3 gms to 0 (1999)
SU-Oakley (43-9) def. Olde State (27-25) 3 gms to 2 (2000)

In 2001, Oregano County Magnet HS reeled off their best season in school history (23-10) en route to their first ever County Championship, ending their drought as the public school going the longest without a championship. They beat Almonte Christian 3 games to 1.

Congratulations to the Ducks!

On the private school side, Oakley Catholic has never won a title since joining the OSHSBL in 1971. They've made the playoffs 12 times and last won the LPS title in 1977 and despite four straight division titles in recent years, they've still gone without.

Call the conference whatever you want, the State University at Oakley (39-13) have turned it into their own personal playground, after claiming their third straight conference championship in 2001. The school is going to turn itself into a destination school for the legions of high school grads, as it continues to dominate. They faced off against Brookmont University in the Conference Championship, after Brookmont (28-24) swept past heavily favoured Olde State University (41-11) in two straight Conference Semi-Final games.

The championship series went the distance, but in the fifth and decisive game, SUO proved that it could not be stopped and they will again raise the Championship chalice another year.

[Young Drachma]

March 13, 2002
OAKLEY BUSINESSMAN TO CONSIDER PRO LEAGUE IN THE SHIRE
OAKLEY (AP) -- Prominent business magnate P.D. McKennel has been discussing with associates the possibility of an independent baseball league of professional standard.

The details are still very murky and the league wouldn't get off the ground for a few years. But the Associated Press has been informed that McKennel's desire to start a unique 82-game league that would play its game entirely for communities in The Shire at a new baseball complex just outside the Shire in the area known as the "Southshire".

A huge baseball fan, he has funded many of the programs in Oakley at various times during the years and has always said that he wanted to see an "opportunity for the favorite sons of Oregano County to play baseball well into their prime years," and this league would allow for that.

More information as it becomes available.

[Young Drachma]

Here is the current map of Oregano County.


I forgot to show you all this last time, but here's a picture of the University of Saint Catherine.


The villages of the Southsire (it's supposed to be Southshire, but the originators spelled it wrong the first time and it's been spelled wrong and pronounced wrong ever since..)

Anyway, Southshire is a community of lakeside villages, each that are unincorporated areas that have place names. If there are youth there, they go to school in The Shire at Far Woods.

Here are some pictures of them:












I know you saw those soccer stadiums.....and yes, it's a reference to a future part of this dynasty that's coming.

[MrBug708]

Is there no direct road from Oakmont to Olde State U?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Is there no direct road from Oakmont to Olde State U?

No, there is no direct road to OSU from Oakmont. Why? Simple. The trustees from Oakmont, actually protested the move to put the State University about 10 miles away from their campus, preferring them to put it ANYWHERE that was further away, fearing a "decadent" element that would pervade their campus.

After all, they know about those boys from Brookmont, but they can't control what sort of crazy, vagrant elements that might come from some sort of state university.

Fast forward to present day and now, the girls are pissed because they can't get to Wal-Mart without a car, because as you can see, it's pretty damn far..but that's completely by accident.

So rumor has it, some sort of real estate development is going up somewhere in that area between Wal-Mart and Oakmont and when it does, the developers plan to build an access road to allow the Oakmont girls to get to Wal-Mart and conversely all of their boyfriends at OSU.

Nice observation, because I'd forgotten about it.

[Young Drachma]

I know I mentioned it before, but I wanted to definitively say that I intend to start a WWSM soccer league based on communities in this game. I haven't really set it up yet, but it's twirling around in my head.

So much so that I'm thinking that I might not bother making the adult baseball league, because that's a stretch, whereas the soccer thing makes PERFECT sense to me.

But we'll see. I haven't decided yet and maybe I could do both. But...the soccer idea really excites me because the area really facilitates that more than anything to me.

Feel free to chime in. The Shire area is really the predominate part of the region in terms of where the 'pro' sports element is located, because I just like it for its quaintness and the fact that the 'cities' in this region are a bit more disparate.

Maybe the idea is, people originally lived in that part of the region and moved to the cities and still root for local communities in The Shire.

But anyway...that's where we're headed. I don't think we'll do much more building right now in terms of the maps and so, we're moving forward to the next phase of this thing.

[BYU 14]

This is cool DC, very unique idea, just finished reading through it, nice job.

[Coder]

Absolutely great idea to create a "fictional world"

I'll probably steal this idea for my fictional junior hockey league game

[Coffee Warlord]

And of course, you caused me to dust off SC4. Jerk.