OHSAA divisions decision offers more championship chances
The OHSAA expanded volleyball to seven divisions starting this fall. West Holmes will compete in Division IV.
In February the Ohio High School Athletic Association overhauled many of its postseason tournaments for the 2024-25 season and beyond.
Using a new formula to determine how many divisions will be offered for postseason tournaments, multiple sports had several divisions added to them.
Boys and girls soccer will now have five divisions instead of three. Boys and girls basketball, girls volleyball, and baseball and softball will all have seven divisions instead of four. Divisions I and II will only include 64 schools in those sports.
“It’s the right thing to do for the student-athletes who have been competing at this disadvantage,” OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute said. “For too long the largest schools in our divisions have been so much larger than the smaller schools in the same division, which has resulted in many schools accepting that they realistically have little chance at making a run in the tournament. In some of our sports, there have been more than 200 schools competing for a state title in that division, which is significantly more than what most other states do and what we do in many of our own sports.”
Wooster is one of the schools that competed in Div. I in many sports throughout the years but was always one of the smallest schools in the division. In volleyball the Generals are now the smallest school in Div. II with the expansion. If they were in Div. III, their postseason tournament would include twice as many schools as Div. II, but the schools would be smaller than them.
Wooster coach Jen Snowbarger doesn’t see an advantage between being the smallest school in Div. II or the biggest one in Div. III.
“I’ve never been in it looking for an easy path,” she said. “If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. No one’s going to be crowned (a state champion) and have an easy route. (Expansion) kind of rearranges (things for us). We’ll have some different competition. I’ve been in it long enough that I’ve changed districts. We’ve changed regions that we go to.”
At the other end of the spectrum is Hiland boys soccer, which will bump down from Div. III to Div. V. Hawks coach Scott Bodiker said the biggest positive of expanding divisions is bringing the divisions’ enrollment discrepancies closer together.
“I think adding divisions overall was probably a good thing since it provided some balance and put us a little more in line with some of the other sports and what they were already doing,” he said. “It will hopefully address some of the concerns that there were about enrollment inequalities.”
West Holmes boys basketball is one of the teams that will benefit greatly from division expansion. The Knights competed in Div. II last year, and their enrollment number was a little over 100 less than the biggest schools in their division. They will compete in Div. IV this winter and will be only 50 less than the biggest schools in their division.
“I think that for a school our size, like West Holmes, being in Div. IV puts us with a group of schools that we’re still going to be competitive with in our district but gives us a chance to really compete,” WH coach Ben Belden said. “Some of those Div. II schools that we were playing against had quite a few more players to choose from, kids to choose from.
“I think it’s kind of leveled the playing field for us. It’s a good thing. I still think that the competitiveness will be there.”
Although expanding divisions has plenty of positives, some potential drawbacks exist.
“Because not as many teams in the East District compete in soccer, there is the real potential that if we don’t have enough teams in our division with boys soccer, they will take our district championship away from us,” Bodiker said. “That didn’t happen this year. It has happened to us in the past, where we’ve had to travel elsewhere to play our district tournament. I think having fewer schools (in divisions) means schools are going to be further apart, and I do think travel time to tournament games for a lot of schools is going to end up going up, and you won’t have as many games sort of locally.”
Hiland girls basketball has dominated the East District for quite some time. A staple at the regional and state tournaments, the Lady Hawks will compete in Div. VII this winter.
Hiland coach Brady Schlabach said the biggest effect expansion will have on East District teams is more of them will make it to regionals and win games at that level.
“I think our area, just like Southwest Ohio, is a high-level basketball area, and now with more teams that’ll be coming out of districts, whether it’s two teams per division or just having more divisions, you’ll see more teams from our area I think winning regional games and getting to state,” he said.
Some people have argued that expanding to seven divisions weakens them. Schlabach said that isn’t necessarily true.
“There are still so many teams and so many good teams in each division that I don’t think they really, per se, get watered down,” he said.
Updated divisions for 2024-25
Boys basketball: Central Christian (VII), Dalton (VI), Garaway (V), Hiland (VI), Orrville (IV), Smithville (VI), Triway (V), Waynedale (V), West Holmes (IV) and Wooster (III).
Boys soccer: Central Christian (IV), Hiland (V), Orrville (IV), Smithville (V), Triway (IV), Waynedale (V), West Holmes (IV) and Wooster (III).
Girls basketball: Central Christian (VII), Dalton (VI), Garaway (VI), Hiland (VII), Orrville (V), Smithville (VI), Triway (V), Waynedale (VI), West Holmes (IV) and Wooster (III).
Girls soccer: Hiland (V), Orrville (IV), Smithville (V), Triway (V), Waynedale (V), West Holmes (IV) and Wooster (III).
Girls volleyball: Central Christian (VII), Dalton (VI), Garaway (VI), Hiland (VI), Orrville (V), Smithville (VI), Triway (V), Waynedale (VI), West Holmes (IV) and Wooster (II).
Spring sports divisions haven’t been released yet.