COLUMBUS — Ohio’s largest high schools could end up in a super-sized division for state tournaments as a way of leveling the playing field for smaller schools.
Although the Ohio High School Athletic Association subcommittee will look at all sports when it meets today to discuss the idea, many fans believe it will address in particular the inequity in the football playoffs.
“What we’re trying to look at is any way to help those smaller schools to compete without any adverse effects,” association commissioner Dan Ross said Thursday.
The state’s schools have always been put in the same division as schools of comparable size for purposes of tournament play. In most sports, that means one school will seldom have a huge advantage in terms of enrollment over another.
Football teams in Division I, the largest of the six divisions, this past fall had 524 or more boys in the top three grades.
That meant that schools such as Fairfield (1,246 boys in the top three grades), Cincinnati St. Xavier (1,173), Cincinnati Oak Hills (1,161) and Mentor (1,148) competed in the same division as Lyndhurst Brush (532), Harrison (536), Fremont Ross (540) and Delaware Hayes (544).
Elyria (888) is near the top of the spectrum, and coach Steve Hamilton expects to be placed in the uppermost division if there’s a change. He said he’s heard rumors lately that it could happen.
“That’d be OK,” he said Thursday night. “If we win our conference, we’ll be in the state playoffs.”
The Pioneers joined the Northeast Ohio Conference this year, which is super-sized in its own right. There are 18 teams, including Mentor, Brunswick (961), Strongsville (944), Medina (857), Lakewood (767) and Solon (722).
Elyria is the largest school in Lorain County, but made its only postseason appearance in 2005, winning once before losing. Hamilton disagreed with the notion that having more kids than the competition is an advantage.
“No matter how many kids you have, it only takes 22 to fill a team,” said Hamilton, who doesn’t think a division should be added. “If you keep separating, pretty soon you’ll have eight or 10 divisions. What good would that do you?”
North Olmsted coach Mike Ptacek has a different perspective. The Eagles’ boys enrollment is listed at 611, which would place them in a different division than the Elyrias and St. Ignatiuses of the state.
“For me, it doesn’t matter either way,” Ptacek said. “The athletes feel the same way. If we’re fortunate to play St. Ignatius or St. Edward or Mentor, it doesn’t matter.
“We were in the playoffs two years ago and were very excited about it.”
The postseason trip in 2005 was North Olmsted’s only one and it ended with a loss to Brush, a school of similar size. Ptacek refused to use enrollment disparity as an excuse, but admitted it can be a disadvantage.
“Obviously you look at it that way,” he said. “But you can’t really think too much about it. If you feel sorry for yourself, you have nowhere to go. We have nothing to complain about. That’s the way it is.
“It’s one of those deals where you always ask athletes to fight through adversity. As coaches, it’s the same thing.”
Admiral King (580) and Southview (547) are the other area Division I schools that would be affected. The Admirals made the playoffs in 1984; Southview has yet to reach the postseason.
This is not the first time the association has tackled the problem. In June 2006, another subcommittee recommended that a smaller number of schools be put in Division I, with the other schools distributed evenly among the remaining divisions. But the association’s board of control turned down that recommendation.
Even if the current subcommittee, which includes football coaches and school administrators, were to come up with another divisional setup, it would have to be approved by the board. The group could ask the association to survey member schools for ideas.
The association also announced that the board has approved a recommendation to split the girls golf tournament into two divisions.
 

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