OHSAA proposal to add divisions could open door for Licking County sports
COLUMBUS — The Ohio High School Athletic Association board of directors could vote on a proposal as early as Thursday that would be the biggest change in the state’s history.
The proposal would increase divisions to seven in boys and girls basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball with boys and girls soccer each to jump to five. It would nearly double the number of teams playing for state championships each season and address the inequity in school size in Divisions I and II.
“It’s a good thing for the state. It’s a good thing for our school,” said Utica athletic director Brian Radabaugh, who also is the boys basketball coach, whose program would likely drop to Division V from Division III. "I can empathize with Mount Vernon, who is coming into our league and (Watkins Memorial) who are going against the juggernauts.
“For us, Harvest Prep would still be out there, so it’s still going to be really competitive. I do like the direction they are headed and I am interested to see what exactly they come up with.”
The proposal would follow a similar model the OHSAA adopted for football in 2013 when it added a seventh division. The inclusion of the seventh division meant dropping Division I to 72 schools.
In this proposal, Divisions I and II would each be reduced to 64 schools with the remaining divisions evenly distributed. The OHSAA noted the enrollment disparity from the top of Division I to the bottom is nearly 1,000 students.
“It would be beneficial to us as currently being one of the smaller Division I schools in those sports being discussed,” Watkins athletic director Jacob Perkins said. “It would put us with a group of schools more close to our size across the board. The discrepancy is a wide gap there. Once they made the move in football, naturally everyone wondered how long it would be before they adjusted other sports.”
Softball nearly won Watkins’ first Division I state team championship in 2021, falling in the final to Massillon Perry. Since moving to Division I in all sports except football about 15 years ago, Watkins baseball is the only other team to win a district championship, and girls basketball and volleyball each have lost in district finals.
While the proposal would be a significant benefit to the current small Division I schools, it also will have a trickle-down effect. Heath, Johnstown, Lakewood and Utica all straddle the line between Division II and Division III when the OHSAA releases classifications each year.
“Big-picture speaking, I am in favor of it,” said Johnstown athletic director Robbie Brickner, noting he does not want the OHSAA to go "overboard." "I get the reason football has more divisions when you look at how violent or physical that sport can be, but I do think some of our sports would make a lot of sense to add divisions."
Johnstown won its second Division III regional softball championship in three seasons last spring. The Johnnies reached the Division II district baseball finals in 2022 and the Division III regional boys basketball finals in 2021.
"I am holding my breath when those (classifications) come out because a couple of our girls sports as constructed now are close to moving a division," Brickner said.
The first two of five Lakewood state softball championships since 2008 came in Division III. The latter three have come in Division II despite being one of the smallest schools.
Heath reached the Division III state baseball tournament last spring and the Division II state softball tournament in 2022. The boys basketball Bulldogs reached the Division II regional finals in 2022 following district losses to Catholic powers Bishop Watterson and DeSales the previous two seasons.
“Looking into the future two and three years out when setting schedules, it would help to know where you are going to be at. It’s tough,” Heath coach Bo Hanson said. “It doesn’t (matter to us). In order to get to where you want to be, you have to play teams better than you, and a lot of times that’s teams bigger than you. To challenge yourself, non-league games have to be against teams that are bigger to prepare you for a tournament run.”
DeSales is a dirty word at Utica. Utica’s girls basketball, boys basketball and most recently baseball have suffered Division II district losses to the Stallions during the past 20 years.
“We want to see teams that are going to be in our district, and with competitive balance, teams are moving up and down more often, so it can mess with you a little bit,” Radabaugh said. “The one year we were D-II, and you run into (Nick Kellogg) and DeSales or (B.J. Mullens) and Canal Winchester. That’s brutal. From that, we felt like going to D-III was a good situation, but the last few years, to be honest, D-II and D-III, there are good teams at both levels.”
Since the addition of a seventh division in football, Licking County has had great success. Johnstown in Division V in 2018, Licking Valley in Division IV in 2019 and Newark Catholic in Division VII in 2021 played in state finals, and Granville won its first Division III regional championship in 2021.
Valley has been solidly in Division IV after previously spending several seasons in Division III, including reaching the state final there in 2007.
“We think it’s a great idea,” Valley athletic director Mark McCullough said. “We think it will give some of those teams — I don’t want to say wouldn’t have a chance to win — but giving them a better chance of having tournament success. We have been pretty smart with our non-league scheduling that will A, give us great competition but again you also want to get your name out there around central Ohio.”
The proposal, however, has one glaring omission. Like the OHSAA’s competitive balance policy, it ignores sports with both individual and team champions.
Cross country has remained at three divisions since 1970. The Granville girls team has won two Division II state championships since 2014 and also had a third-place finish in Division I in 2018. Both Granville track teams have had individual state champions since moving up to Division I a decade ago but missed out on opportunities to win team championships had they been in Division II.
The Licking Valley girls golf team qualified for the Division II district tournament in 2021 for the first time, and the Panthers then moved up to Division I and competed in the sectional tournament against eventual state champion Dublin Jerome last fall. In bowling, Olivia Strait qualified for the Division II state tournament for the Panthers in 2022, but she just missed last winter.
“That’s going to be a big push once the coaches of the individual sports see this go through, and I am sure it will,” McCullough said. “In golf, it would be great for our girls to not to have to compete in Division I. To me, it’s ridiculous we have to, but we understand that’s the hand we’re dealt.”
Perkins sees one other downside. After watching Watkins softball compete in the Division I state tournament the last three seasons, he is concerned the pomp and circumstance will be lost if an addition of divisions necessitates multiple state tournament venues or sends semifinals to regionalized venues across Ohio.
“I would be a little curious how they will do the state semifinals,” Perkins said. "I assume they will do it like football and soccer. Making the state final four in those sports being discussed is a really special thing. … Soccer is probably the best comparison. Will it be played on a Tuesday night at a high school?”
OHSAA administrators have met with schools for feedback the past few weeks. Unlike referendum items which go to the schools for vote each May, however, the board of directors alone will decide if 2024 becomes a landmark point in Ohio sports history.
740-973-4541
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: OHSAA proposal to add divisions could open door for Licking County
