Massillon Has Had Great Success in Playoff Regional Finals Games
This season marks the 53rd year that the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) has been conducting playoffs to determine football state championships. While most armchair fans of the sport cite the number of state titles won by a team as the sole measurement of success, the number regional titles should also receive some consideration. And it may be even a better measure of historical achievement, given the much larger dataset of games. Besides, even the OHSAA gives regional titles enough respect that they award trophies to the champions.
Massillon has performed extremely well in both reaching regional games and winning those games. In fact, among large schools, they have more regional titles than any other public school in the state and trail only parochial counterpart Cincinnati Moeller when considering all schools. Through the 2023 season, as shown in the chart below, the Tigers have reached the regional championship game 19 times out of 45 tries (45%) (only one team per region qualified during the first eight years). Massillon reached the game 12 times in 33 years (36%) in Division I and 6 times in 12 years (50%) in Division II, including the last seven. Of those 19 regional final games played, Massillon has won 14 (74%), 8 of 12 in Division I and 6 of 7 in Division II.
In state semifinal games the Tigers have a record of 7-7; 5-3 against public schools and 2-4 against parochial schools. In state finals games the Tigers have a record of 1-6, with all games having been played against parochial schools. They have never faced a public school in the finals. The schools Massillon has most frequently faced in those two games have been Akron Hoban (1-3), Cleveland St. Ignatius (0-3), Cincinnati Moeller (0-2), Cincinnati LaSalle (1-1) and Cincinnati Winton Woods (1-1).
The chart below shows the large schools across the state that have won the most regional championship games along with their respective number of state titles. Two sets of calendar data are displayed, marking the realignment of the divisions that occurred in 2013. For contrast, the public and parochial schools are shown separately.
Among public schools, Massillon leads the way with 16 regional titles, ten in Division I and six in Division II. Well behind are Canton McKinley and Chardon with nine apiece. Eight of the eleven schools listed have secured one or more state titles. Three have not, including Avon, Mentor and Toledo Whitmer. Interestingly, all of the regional titles earned by McKinley, Princeton and Whitmer and most of those by Upper Arlington and Steubenville occurred prior to realignment of the divisions, while all but one of Avon’s titles came after the realignment. Of course, it should be noted that prior to the alignment both Massillon and McKinley were fortunate enough to be assigned to regions that did not include a major parochial school. And McKinley was unfortunate following the realignment to be moved to the Cleveland region that includes both Cleveland St. Ignatius and Lakewood St.Edward. Finally, just 19% of the regional champions in this group went on to win a state title.
Among parochial schools, Moeller leads the way with 19, followed by Cleveland St. Ignatius with 15 and Lakewood St. Edward with 13. Moeller was the dominant team in the 1970s and 1980s, while St. Ignatius had their powerhouse teams immediately after Moeller, but most prior to the realignment. Ironically, they have has captured just one regional title following the realignment of the divisions, while recently it has been St. Edward at the top of the heap. Most of Akron Hoban’s and Cincinnati LaSalle’s titles have come after the realignment, of course for different reasons. Hoban increased its focus on championship football shortly before the realignment took place and LaSalle benefited from moving down from Division I to Division II. Overall, the parochial schools have been dominant with a whopping 81% of regional champions going on to win the state titles.
This week the regional championship games will be held once again, with the field stocked with the teams shown in the chart, as indicated by the yellow highlighting. In fact, 10 of the 24 teams in the top three divisions are in this group. Six are expected to come on top, while all three eventual state champions are expected to come from this group. But at the end of the day, Massillon and Moeller will still remain atop the regional championship pack.
