Ohio Athletic Association Seeks To Address Competitive Imbalance

March 25, 2013 /
The News-Messenger

http://www.thenews-messenger.com/article/20130322/HSSPORTS/303220008?odyssey=mod|mostcom

A proposal to split Ohio’s high school sports tournaments into public and non-public divisions has been withdrawn and will be replaced by a formula to address a perceived competitive imbalance.

Principals in Ohio High School Athletic Association member schools were set to vote in May on the split, an idea that did not originate with the OHSAA. Wooster Triway Superintendent Dave Rice gathered signatures from member schools to have the split put on the ballot after principals twice voted down a formula to determine divisional alignment.

Currently, divisions are assigned based strictly on enrollment. The formula that was voted down would also have taken into account tradition, based on recent championships and state tournament appearances; socioeconomics, based on the number of students receiving a free lunch; and boundaries, based on open enrollment and in the case of some non-public schools, the lack of official boundary lines.

The proposal that will replace the idea for split tournaments on the ballot would only include the boundary issue, Rice said, potentially making teams — from public and non-public schools — that draw students from outside geographical boundaries move up a division or more in sports.

“Separation of the tournaments is one end of the continuum and the other end of the continuum is doing nothing,” OHSAA commissioner Dan Ross said Friday in a news conference. “I’m a very strong believer that doing nothing is not an option and I’m a very firm believer that separating the tournaments is not a good option either.

“This piece isn’t the final answer to this. This issue has been around for a long time and its going to still be around. But we believe this option is the fairest.”

Scott Beatty, superintendent of Dalton Local Schools, was also active in the proposal for separate tournaments. Beatty and Rice expressed Friday that separating the tournaments was not the end goal, but they would not have the new proposal without the first.

Beatty also stressed the importance of making sure the new proposal passes, or the separation of tournaments will almost assuredly resurface.


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