OHSAA Makes Modest Changes to Divisional Assignments

The Ohio High School Athletic Association has adjusted its divisional assignments for the 2019 football season following updated competitive balance numbers.  However, regional assignments have yet to be made.  Here are the changes based on last year’s regions:

• Region 5 – Copley moves to Division 3
• Region 6 – Perrysburg and Toledo Bowsher move to Division 1
• Region 7 – New Albany moves to Division 1; Ashland, Dover and Tri-Valley move to Division 3
• Region 8 – Dayton Belmont moves to Division 3

Several teams have been relocated to Division 2 to fill the vacancies created by those that have left, including:

• From Division 1 – Austintown Fitcn, Cleveland John Marshall and Cleveland Rhodes
• From Division 3 – Parma Padua, Alliance, Akron North, Olentangy Berlin, Columbus DeSales, Piqua and West Carrollton

If the new D2 teams are placed geographically based on last year’s regions, then Region 5 would be heavy by a few teams and Region 6 would be short by a few teams.  So it appears on the surface that Region 5 would need to surrender some teams to Region 6 in order to create balance.  Or, given that none of the Region 5 teams would be considered candidates to move to Region 6, then the OHSAA could opt to move some Region 5 teams to Region 7 and some Region 7 teams to Region 6.  The obvious additions to Region 7 would be Akron Ellet, Akron Firestone and Akron Kenmore-Garfield while the logical subtractions would be Barberton, Wadsworth and Medina Highland, all of whom were in Region 6 in 2017.

But regardless of who moves, Massillon, Cincinnati Winton Woods, Akron Hoban, Toledo Central and Cincinnati LaSalle will remain as the teams to beat in Division 2,  It should be noted that Massillon and Winton Woods have the highest competitive advantage number for a public school in the division.  Toledo Central and Akron Hoban have the highest numbers for a parochial school in D2 (4th and 5th, respectively, among all divisions).

Tiger Nation Loses a Long-Time Friend

Dale Walterhouse, former Tiger assistant coach and WHS teacher, passed away May 29.  As a long-time member of the Massillon Tiger Football Booster Club, Dale was a friend of everyone.  But most of all, he was always there to help when a project needed done.

He began his coaching career in Massillon in 1959 as the coach of Jones Junior High, moving onto sophomores the following year.  By 1964 he was the sophomore head coach and a varsity assistant under the legendary Earle Bruce, then Bob Seaman, Bob Commings and Mike Currence.  Overall, his coaching tenure spanned 24 seasons.  His last coached in 1984, which was Currence’s final year at Massillon.  John Moronto, Currence’s replacement elected not to renew Walterhouse’s contract.  But Dale did not fret, for he said it freed up his time to watch son Kurt play football in college.  By the end of his career, Walterhouse had been influential on six state championship teams, two of which were named national champions.

When not coaching, he taught health, physical education and general chemistry at the high school.  He also served a short stint as Athletic Director.

Later, he was a Massillon City Councilman and Manager of the Elms Swim Club.

As a member of the Massillon Tiger Football Booster Club, Dale served as vice president in 2001, president in 2002 and treasurer from 2003 to 2011.  He was also president of the Sideliners in 1999.

In 2016, Coach Walterhouse was featured on the game program cover for the Akron Firestone game (see photo).

As a reward for his stellar career, Dale was inducted into the Tiger Hall of Fame in 2015.  He also received the One Tiger Heritage Award in 2018.  According to Managing Director Bob Clendenin, this honor is given to individuals who contribute decades of time and effort toward bettering their community and helping kids.

Dale and wife Jo are the proud parents of children Kathy, Kurt and Steve, 11 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren.

He will be greatly missed by those who knew him.

POW / MIA Empty Chair Event Slated for June…

Referendum on Changes to Competitive Balance Formula Approved by…

The OHSAA announced today (May 17) that all 24 referendums recently presented for vote by its member schools have passed.  Included was a change to the Competitive Balance formula, which is currently used by the OHSAA to classify schools for the post-season playoffs in various sports.  But don’t expect the change as it relates to football to result in moving large numbers of teams up or down a division.

Background

Competitive Balance was introduced by the OHSAA a few years ago in response to (1) public school allegations of recruiting being performed by several parochial schools and (2) perceived advantages in sports that parochial schools enjoy over their public school counterparts .  As a compromise measure to avoid separating the playoffs, the OHSAA elected to introduce a formula that would adjust the base enrollment of a given school to account for both the number and types of transfer students that play a selected sport.  The adjusted enrollments would then be used to determine in which division each school then competes in the post-season.  Note that different formulas are used for public and parochial schools.

For public schools, the base enrollment would be adjusted upward by “1” for each student that open-enrolled in the school district prior to the 7th grade.  This is defined as Tier 1.  In addition, the enrollment would  be adjusted upward by “2” for each student that open enrolled in the school district in the 7th grade or after.  This is defined as Tier 2.

For parochial schools, Tier 1 is for students that attended a parochial grade school since the 7th grade, but not the one designated as the high school’s “feeder school.”  Tier 2 is for students that did not attend a parochial grade school or enrolled in a parochial grade school after the 7th grade.

The Change

Previously, a school was required to submit the roster of players across all grades 9-12 for the effective sports season.  The roster would then be used to calculated the Tier 1 and Tier 2 adders.  Now, incoming freshmen are not to be included on the roster, unless they participated on the varsity team during the previous year as an 8th grader.  Also, the adder for Tier 2 has been increased from “2” to “3.”

In spite of the increase in the value of the Tier 2 adder from “2” to “3”, don’t expect much change in the adjusted enrollment.  For example: assume that a school currently has 20 open enrollment students across four grades.  Previously, the total adder for Tier 2 would be 20 x 2 or 40.  With freshmen now omitted, the proportioned number of open enrollment students would now be 15.  Thus, the total adder for Tier 2 is 15 x 3 or 45.  No changes would be made to the Tier 1 part of the formula, the total of which would actually decrease proportionally as noted above.  As you can see, not much of a change.

So chalk this one up to an appeasement to the coaches, whose lives just got a little easier when it comes time to report rosters.  But it still does nothing to fix the imbalances that exist in several of the divisions, especially Division 1.

Football Booster Club Kicks off 2019 Season with Spring…

The 2019 Massillon football season was officially launched off on Friday at the Massillon Eagles with the annual Spring Kickoff Event in front of a capacity crowd of Tiger faithful.  Following social time and a steak dinner, head Coach Nate Moore spoke at length about all of the good things happening with the football program and his prognosis for the upcoming season.  He was preceded by guest speaker Mike Leach, head coach of Washington State, which happens to be the next stop for Jamir Thomas, the Tigers’ sensational running back.  Thomas set career records last year for rushing yards, rushing attempts and points scored.  Earlier in the evening Leach was featured at a “meet-and-greet” at Kozmos.

Mike Leach has been at Washington State for seven years following a successful tenure at Texas Tech, compiling an overall record of 133-83.  Twice he was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year.  Last season the Cougars finished 11-2, including a 28-26 victory against Iowa State in the Alamo Bowl.

Coach Leach utilizes the “Air Raid” offense as his primary scheme, speaking at length about its benefits in the college game and its recent influence at both the high school and professional levels.  Originally derived from the “Wish-Bone,” distribution is the key, he said.  Lots of players touch the ball.  The goal is to create space with the passing game and get the ball to the open receiver, whether it be to a wide receiver or a running back.  It’s not unusual to see the running back become the leading receiver.

The play book is not large, but every play is extensively practiced each day.  Then it’s just a matter of selecting the optimum plays to run against each opponent.  “It’s always been a game of execution,” he said.  “It’s always better to have too little than too much.”

Then it was Coach Moore’s turn, fresh off a Division II state final appearance with his 14-1 team.  The very successful Massillon coach Moore covered a lot of ground in his speech and the highlights are presented below:

• The team goals this year are fairly simple: beat Canton McKinley and win the state title.
• The Tigers return all of their coordinators, including John Mazur and Jarett Troxler on the offensive side of the ball and Craig McConnell and Spencer Leno on the defensive side.  Other returning assistant coaches include Cale Miller (wide receivers), Eric Copeland (running backs), Dan Hackenbracht (safeties), Jason Jarvis (cornerbacks and special teams), J.P. Simon (defensive tackles), Dave Weber (defensive ends) and Danny Studer (strength and conditioning).  New to the program are Mike Stone (fullbacks and tight ends) and Josh Garvin (offensive line).
• Seven full-time starters and several part-time starters from among a group of 26 lettermen return from last year.  Six players have already landed athletic scholarship offers.
• The annual Lift-a-thon was held last week and the participants lifted a combined weight exceeding 53,000 pounds.  Moore said the players did a tremendous job.
• The College Showcase was held last Wednesday and nearly 70 coaches from all levels of college football were in attendance.  “It was a tremendous day for all of our players,” said Moore.  “Several kids got offers.  Lots of video was taken.  There will be more offers.”  Jayden Ballard ran a 4.43 40-yard dash and Andrew Wilson-Lamp ran a 4.45.  Several players were between 4.5 and 4.6.  “We’re strong and we’re fast,” summed up the coach.  “This is a highly dedicated group.  They work really hard.”  Next, the team will focus on skill development.
• A busy summer is planned for the summer in preparation for August 1^st official start of practice.  7-on-7s are scheduled for the University of Akron, Ohio State University and Pittsburgh University.  Camps are on tap at Kent State, Cincinnati, Ohio State and Akron.
• The team GPA for the 3^rd quarter was 3.05, a bit shy of the goal of 3.3.  The coach expects improvement in the 4^th quarter.
• Becca Moore, wife of the coach, will again provide preparatory work for ACT testing.
• The Golf Outing is scheduled for August 6.

Coach Moore then gave a rundown on each of the opponents on this year’s schedule, which comprises six home games:

• Akron St. Vincent – They were young last year and should be good this year.  They have a 4-year starter at quarterback.  Terrance Keyes returns at running back for a third season.
• GlenOak – New coach Bo Balderson will try to get the Eagles back on track.  The quarterback, Kindel Richardson, returns.
• At Warren Harding – They always have great skill.  This will be a tough matchup.
• Penn-Trafford, PA – They went 9-3 last year and have a Division 1 running back.
• Akron Firestone – Same old.
• At Austintown Fitch – Expect another great game.
• Gateway, PA.  They went 11-2 last year and have a Division 1 running back.  They are similar to East St. Louis, a national-power the Tigers faced last year.
• At Barberton – The Magics are 28-2 in the regular season during the past three years and have a stellar running back returning.
• Louisville – The final game in the series, as the contract will not be renewed following a 41-0 blowout last year.  The quarterback returns.
• Canton McKinley – “This is the greatest high school rivalry in the country,” said Moore.  They have a new coach in Marcus Wattley, formerly of Akron St. Vincent and University of Akron (Dan Reardon has moved on to a former coaching stop, Youngstown Ursuline).  The Bulldogs return several key players.

OHSAA Proposes Changes to Competitive Balance – Revised

Revised March 26, 2019

Traditionally, high school football teams were assigned to specific divisions based on the overall school enrollment.  That is, the largest schools were classified as Division 1, the next largest as Division 2 and so on, with the schools distributed evenly among the selected number of regions as determined by the OHSAA.

Recently, several superintendents were disgruntled with the domination of state championships by the private schools and proposed that the OHSAA separate the playoffs.  Given that the OHSAA would not support this, a compromise solution was developed and then implemented for the 2017 season.  In essence, an adjustment would be made to each school’s counted enrollment based on the number of football players that did not live in the school’s district.

Each roster player, freshman through senior, would be assigned a classification of Tier 0, Tier 1 or Tier 2.  For public schools, a Tier 1 player is an open enrollment student that enrolled in the school district prior to the 7^th Grade.   A Tier 2 player is an open enrollment student that entered the district in the 7^th Grade or after.  All other students are presumed to be residents of the school district’s geographic boundary and would be classified as Tier 0.

For private schools, A Tier 0 player is a student that attended a private grade school that was designated by the high school as their preferred parish.  A Tier 1 player is one that attended a private grade school since the beginning of the 7^th Grade.  All other players are classified as Tier 2.

For 2017, the amount added to the school’s counted enrollment was “0” for Tier 0 players, “1” for Tier 1 players and “2” for Tier 2 players.  In that most private schools were significantly affected by this new rule, several moved up one or two divisions.  For example, Akron Hoban moved up from Division 3 to Division 2 and Toledo Central moved up from Division 4 to Division 2.

On February 14 of this year, the OHSAA released a number of referendum items that were approved by the administrators and will be voted upon by the school superintendents later this year.  Included among these is Issue 2B – Change in Additional Roster Count Makeup – Bylaw 2-2-2, 2-2-6.  This issue modifies the Competitive Balance formula in two ways.  First, the adder for Tier 2 players increases from “2” to “3.”  Second, freshman players are not considered in the calculation, unless they participated in a varsity football game the prior year.  The adder for many other sports was also changed, such as for baseball and basketball, which increased from “5” to “7.”  An exception to the private school classifications was included whereby if the school has a defined enrollment boundary, then all students that reside within the boundary would become Tier 0 if enrolled in one of the district’s private schools from the beginning of the 7^th Grade and Tier 1 of enrolled after.

The OHSAA stated that these changes are being proposed based on feedback from the various schools.  For one, freshmen do not necessarily have much impact on tournament games.  Secondly, coaches may exclude transfer students from their freshman teams to massage the adjusted number downward.  Also, schools may elect not to field freshman teams.

The original release of this story, lacking specific Tier numbers for each school, assumed that for all schools 30% of the affected players would be Tier 1 and the remaining 70% would be Tier 2.  However, additional research was conducted using roster sizes for specific schools and back-calculating the competitive advantage numbers.  The belief is now that this assumption was incorrect, particularly for the private schools.  A better assumption would be as follows:

• Public Schools: 70% Tier 0, 10% Tier 1, 20% Tier 2
• Private Schools: 10% Tier 0, 60% Tier 1, 30% Tier 2

These numbers work well for most private schools.  However, a few have Tier 2 percentages are significantly higher, including Toledo Central and Akron St. Vincent.  With the new adder Central would remain in Division 2, while St. V could move up from D3 to D2.

Surprisingly, and by using this new assumption, the school assignments for both Divisions 1 and 2 would remain virtually unchanged.  Note: The effect on the lower divisions was not evaluated.