By: Nate Calvin
The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced Monday the new divisional breakdowns for the upcoming fall sports, along with football playoff regional assignments.
The OHSAA Board of Directors approved the new divisions during its June meeting late last week.
The OHSAA uses enrollment data provided by the Ohio Department of Education to determine each school’s base enrollment numbers for girls and boys sports, which will be used for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.
Divisional breakdowns for the sports that utilize competitive balance data, which include soccer, volleyball and football in the fall, are reconfigured every year, while non-competitive balance sports are reconfigured every two years using only base enrollment numbers.
For Williams and Fulton County schools, there was some movement in boys’ soccer, volleyball, and football.
The Delta Panthers were the only area school in boys soccer to switch divisions as they will move up to Division II from Division III with an enrollment of 187, missing the cutoff for Division III by just one.
A pair of NWOAL schools will be changing divisions in boys golf as Archbold and Delta go from Division III to Division II.
Two schools are making a move in volleyball with Wauseon moving up to Division II from Division III and Montpelier drops from Division III to Division IV.
There was plenty of movement across the state in football, including three schools from our coverage area.
Archbold and Delta make the jump to Division V Region 18 (D6, R22 in 2021) and Montpelier moves down to Division VII Region 26 after playing in Division VI Region 22 last season.
Wauseon (D4, R14), Bryan (D4, R14), Swanton (D5, R18), Evergreen (D6, R22), Edgerton (D7, R29), Edon (D7, R26), and Hilltop (D7, R26) all remain in the same divisions for 2022.
North Central’s inaugural season of varsity football will find the Eagles in Division VII Region 26.
Winter sports divisional breakdowns will be announced Tuesday, while the spring sports will be announced in September.
The complete list can be found at the links below.
Golf – two divisions for girls, three divisions for boys, no competitive balance: https://www.ohsaa.org/sports/golf
Girls Tennis – two divisions, no competitive balance: https://www.ohsaa.org/sports/girlstennis
Field Hockey – one division, no competitive balance: https://www.ohsaa.org/sports/fh
Cross Country – three divisions for girls and boys, no competitive balance: https://www.ohsaa.org/sports/cc
Soccer – three divisions for girls and boys using competitive balance data: https://www.ohsaa.org/Sports-Tournaments/Soccer/Soccer-2022
Girls Volleyball – four divisions using competitive balance data: https://www.ohsaa.org/Sports-Tournaments/Volleyball/Volleyball-2022
Football – seven divisions using competitive balance data; four regions per division: https://www.ohsaa.org/Sports-Tournaments/Football/Football-2022
Nate can be reached at sports@thevillagereporter.com