Several area high schools fall sports teams will be moving to new divisions after the Ohio High School Board of Education approved new divisional breakdowns for the upcoming fall season Thursday.
According to the OHSAA, division assignments are based on school enrollment numbers provided by the Ohio Department of Education, and then modified in football, volleyball and soccer based on competitive balance factors that OHSAA member schools approved by referendum vote in 2014.
Five football teams in the area saw moves to different divisions. Ottawa-Glandorf moved down to Division V due to enrollment. St. Marys moved down to Division IV due to enrollment numbers and Ada moved up to Division VI due to enrollment numbers. Coldwater moved down to Division VI due to competitive balance and Fort Recovery moved up to Division IV due to enrollment numbers.
“First, I think with competitive balance this is a step in the right direction,” St. Marys head coach Doug Frye. “But as far as any major changes I think it is too early tell.”
Frye said because the Roughriders move down he will be playing “bigger schools” which means that this could benefit St. Marys in terms of making the postseason by accumulating significant computer points by defeating schools in higher divisions..
“We are playing bigger schools and that is a positive if you have six, seven or eight wins it will be more of an advantage to make the playoffs, but the bottom line is you still have to win games,” Frye said.
In volleyball, Ottawa-Glandorf moved down to Division III and Columbus Grove dropped to Division IV because of competitive balance. Delphos Jefferson moved down to Division IV due to competitive balance and Fort Recovery moved down to Division IV due to enrollment. Both Spencerville and Minster moved up to Division III because of enrollment.
Ottawa-Glandorf was the lone school affected in soccer as both the boys and girls teams moved down to Division III because of enrollment.
The OHSAA reported that of the 718 schools that play football in Ohio, 75 schools moved up to a higher division due to competitive balance and/or a higher base enrollment number. In volleyball (790 schools), 51 moved up a division. In girls soccer (522 schools), 24 moved up a division, while in boys soccer (571 schools), 30 moved up a division.
In a statement released by the OHSAA, “This is a journey that we have been on for more than eight years to get to this point,” Dr. Dan Ross, OHSAA Commissioner, said. “Today’s approval of the fall sports divisional breakdowns is the result of countless hours of work by our staff and our member schools. For the first time in OHSAA history, enrollment isn’t the only factor in determining a school’s division in certain sports. But the journey isn’t over. We will study the results of this first go-around and discuss with the Competitive Balance Committee and the board.”
According to competitive balance regulations, the previous season’s roster data (grades 9-12) is used for affecting the following season’s additional roster count in the selected sports. The additional roster count is added to the school’s base enrollment number to determine the final adjusted enrollment count before divisional placements are made.
The OHSAA release added from Ross, “The committee studied the competitive balance factors and we listened to the feedback from our member schools,” Dr. Ross said, noting that the first three Competitive Balance Proposals were voted down by the membership in 2011, 2012 and 2013. “As we’ve said all along, our goal is to keep public and non-public schools together in the same postseason divisions, but Competitive Balance will help place those schools in the correct division based on the makeup of their roster. We are very pleased that this is now off the ground and we can see the results. We’ll continue to gather feedback and see what changes, if any, the committee wants to propose to the membership to vote on in the future.”
