#ohsaa

[wrestlingisbest]

Ohio State Champs

[gatorsportsfan]

Several area high schools to play for OHSAA football championship this weekend

Several area high schools to play for OHSAA football championship this weekend Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement

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[ledenews]

The Ohio Valley is in major need of basketball officials. It’s certainly not a localized issue and it’s not one that’s just now come about. News outlets in the Ohio Valley detailed similar stories and pleas on multiple occasions in the last decade. But the lack of availability for officials is starting to affect scheduling.Where a game being postponed because of no officials was previously a one-off per season, is starting to become commonplace. No, it’s not an everyday occurrence. The local boards are doing the best they can, spreading their number of officials around as best they can.But the postponements are starting to pop up more and more, and people are noticing.River athletics director Mark Romick relayed on Twitter early Wednesday afternoon that the night’s freshman game against St. Clairsville was canceled because of a lack of officials.The week prior, Barnesville’s Brad Hannahs made a similar tweet, noting that a junior high boys game between River and his Shamrocks had to postpone for a similar reason.While no varsity or junior varsity contest has been affected yet according to Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Basketball Commissioner Doug Costain, the junior high and parochial leagues are stretched thin—too thin.“Each board has its own people that do the scheduling and it’s a constant puzzle,” Costain admitted. “Everything slides downhill, so if someone is off that does varsity games, we may take a jayvee guy, and then the junior varsity schedule will take a guy that’s doing junior high games.“And at that level, you need the most fill-ins and that’s where we’re seeing games get canceled?”Martins Ferry AD Greg Harkness noted that Wednesday night was the first time his programs had to cancel a game. Others aren’t as lucky.One principal noted that there have been six games canceled already for that district at the junior high level, along with 2-3 freshman games.“It’s near a quarter of their season,” the administrator noted, wishing to remain anonymous. “At the junior high level, it’s been a big issue.”St. John Central Academy, which brought back junior high boys’ basketball for the first time since transitioning to Academy status, had to improvise Wednesday to get its game in.In order to play, the academy’s AD, Bubba Kapral, along with Bridgeport varsity boys’ basketball coach Donnie Cash, officiated the game. Cash is a licensed official, as is Kapral, the longtime successful Fighting Irish girls’ basketball coach. But neither initially planned on officiating that evening.Coaches and administrators are doing what they have to in order to get games in and schools.Harkness noted he’ll try to double up a freshman game with either the junior high level or with the varsity and junior varsity, allowing officials to double and if possible, triple up games for the evening.These are just two examples of the announcements that local athletic directors are being forced to make because the area basketball officials are stretched entirely too thin as work is being done to replenish the ranks.Why the Shortage?There is a multitude of reasons why there’s an official shortage, and not just in basketball. One of the first reasons most point too is the behavior of fans and parents at basketball games. While that is part of it, it’s not the only reason.What’s for certain, is there’s definitely a shortage and this profession needs an infusion of new blood, because the current crop of men and women wearing the uniform isn’t getting any younger.The National Federation of State High School Associations took a closer look at this very issue back during the height of COVID.In her article, Dr. Karissa Niehoff, the executive director of the NFHS, noted that the average age of officials back in 2020 was 53 years of age. There are also plenty of officials working four and five nights a week well into their 60s.Costain believes there are a lot of other options available for people to spend their time doing and not as many are coming to officiating.“There’s a lot available for young people, a lot of distractions,” Costain said. “We had 16 people in our training class this year, but it just seems being a referee—and not just in basketball as there’s a need in every sport—is not high on the list of things to do.“A lot of people want to point to fan behavior, and that can be part of it.”While not the only reason people are wary about officiating, parent and fan behavior is likely a big deterrent.It doesn’t take an exhaustive search of social media, or YouTube, to find a video of some fan or parent becoming unruly at a youth sporting event—not even just high school, but even little league.You can probably count on one hand the number of seconds it takes after tip-off for someone to utter the old standby “call it both ways” in any high school gymnasium.“If you’d sit and make a checklist of the pros and cons of becoming an official if you referee, it can take time away from your family, you get yelled at by the fans, someone might blister you on social media, and if there’s a broadcast team, they may do it to,” Costain said. “It can be detrimental to officiating and it creates the perfect storm.“We are trying to work together to provide a positive environment for officials.”Admittedly, the younger levels are where a lot of the negative experiences for officials, especially new ones to the profession, are happening.Once an official receives his or her license and registers with a board, they can be assigned games to work. Generally, newbies are hitting the parochial league and junior high circuits out of the game to get their feet wet and gain experience before moving up to the high school levels.“We had a meeting last Saturday, the OVAC met with one of the local boards along with 3-4 athletic directors,” Costain said. “Again, it’s a perfect storm, because when you are at 5th and 6th, or junior high games, you have new players, but also sometimes newer or younger coaches, and referees, and for that matter, a lot of time it’s new or younger parents and it’s their first time really getting involved with competitive sports.“No one wants to see a kid fall that they believe gets fouled, but there’s so much judgment in basketball officiating. People see things in different ways and will comment.“We’re working to come up with a couple of ideas, but one is to better educate the fans on the rules of the game. Sometimes a rule at the NBA or college level isn’t the same as here.”Replenishing the RanksCostain and his brothers and sisters in officiating are trying different ways to swell the ranks and get more people involved in officiating.He’s been to high schools in the Ohio Valley and talked to physical education classes. He’s set up information booths in the lunch room to talk to people and get them excited and involved with officiating.“Honestly, it’s a great part-time job. I don’t like to sell people just on the money, but you can make some money doing it, spending a couple of hours getting paid doing something you enjoy,” Costain said.While the junior high and high school seasons offer plenty of officiating opportunities, the potential for even more numerous earning opportunities exists in the offseason. As the AAU and travel circuits continue to grow, there are seemingly tournaments every weekend in the Tri-State area where officials can work in both boys’ and girls’ basketball.You don’t have to wait until reaching adulthood either. Kids ages 16 and up can officiate, too.In fact, Edison High School in Richmond offers a sports officiating class, taught by former athletics director Joanne Stagani.“It’s done through the OHSAA and they do everything required to get licensed, along with some extra training like concussion training, how to handle an injury.”Costain said a move to make these types of classes accredited in West Virginia is in discussion at the state board of education level.Another potential boon to getting more people involved is it’s easier to take the classes and get certified than previously.“A lot of the training can be done online,” Costain said. “There are x number of hours mandated in person, but you can do a lot of it remotely.”There’s actually a local class starting up soon, put on by longtime basketball official Donnie Giffin. Participants can register now. Costain encourages anyone interested to contact Giffin via email at [email protected] to get signed up.Considering Giffin is an OHSAA Hall of Fame basketball official, prospective new officials are certain to learn much.This isn’t a call to just young or interested men, either. The OVAC has a growing number of female officials and last January, had its first all-female crew officiate a game when Gina Hicks, Maclaine Murad, and Meghan Scott worked an OVAC Class 4A semifinal.“We have a great contingent of female officials and women are increasingly being very productive in sports officiating,” Costain said. “They are working in the NBA, Division I men’s and women’s basketball, even in the NFL.”

[ok3sports]

St. Xavier’s Joe Kirby went 7-for-7 shooting from three in the first half against Wayne, leading all scorers with 29 points. Bombers won 81-65. #ok3sports #playoffs #ohsaa (at Centerville High School) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMJXQZdAdIz/?igshid=1jpsa85myq0b6

[ok3sports]

St. Xavier Kobe Rodgers dropped 17 points to help the Bombers advance to the next round #ohsaa #playoffs #ok3sports (at Centerville High School) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMJL4GdgmnC/?igshid=pvn2s0w40pt4

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/ohsaa-announces-venues-for-state-wrestling-ice-hockey-tournaments-local-sports-news/

OHSAA announces venues for state wrestling, ice hockey tournaments | Local Sports News

COLUMBUS — The Ohio High School Athletic Association on Thursday announced the venues for two upcoming state tournaments.

The ice hockey state tournament will be March 13-14 at the OhioHealth Ice Haus in Columbus, which is attached to Nationwide Arena/

The wrestling state tournament, also March 13-14, will be divided between three Central District high schools, Hilliard Darby (Division I), Marengo Highland (Division II) and Marion Harding (Division III).

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Nationwide Arena is not able to host the ice hockey state tournament on the dates scheduled by the OHSAA, and the Schottenstein Center at The Ohio State University is not able to host the wrestling state tournament.

“We want to thank these three member schools for agreeing to host the wrestling state tournament along with everyone associated with the Ice Haus, Nationwide Arena and the Blue Jackets for their work to host the ice hockey state tournament,” said OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute.

“The most important thing we are doing is giving our student-athletes a chance to compete. Our member schools and other tournament sites are to be commended for doing everything they can to provide these opportunities during the pandemic,” he said.

In the coming days, the OHSAA will announce sites for the regional and state basketball tournaments.

As previously announced, the swimming and diving state tournament will remain at C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton Feb. 24-27, the bowling state tournaments will remain at Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl Feb. 26-27 and March 5-6 and the gymnastics state tournament will remain at Hilliard Bradley High School March 5-6.

Ticketing information will be sent to member schools as the tournament move forward.

The Ohio Department of Health and Gov. Mike DeWine ask only family members attend athletic events at this time, with indoor facility capacity limits set at 15 percent of the capacity or 300 people, whichever is smaller, unless the venue has received a variance to accommodate more spectators.

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[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/ohsaa-cuts-begin-news-sports-jobs/

OHSAA cuts begin | News, Sports, Jobs

COLUMBUS — The Ohio High School Athletic Association is cutting expenses while passing along costs to its member schools as it deals with declining revenues during the coronavirus pandemic.

The OHSAA announced Thursday the dual team regional and state tournament will be suspended this season.

The state dual tournament preceded the individual state championships every year since 2013, but due to cost cutting will not go on this season.

“It saddens me to relay this information to the wrestling community,” wrote OHSAA Director of Officiating and Sport Management Tyler Brooks. “We all know that the dual team tournament provides a unique team environment and atmosphere for our sport that the individual tournament simply cannot. I don’t know what the future holds for the dual team tournament, if and when it could be resumed, or when that determination would be made.”

No announcement has been made yet on when the individual tournament will be held, but Brooks said that he hopes to provide an update on the wrestling season next week.

Beaver Local reached the state dual team tournament semifinals in February 2019, while South Range advanced to the state tournament this past season.

“We are disheartened with today’s announcement of the suspension of the State Dual series for the 20-21 season,” the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association tweeted. “As association leaders we are committed to working with OHSAA to bring it back into the fold as soon as possible.”

The OHSAA also announced it would be implementing a $25 tournament entry fee for track and field, cross country, bowling, golf, swimming and diving, and gymnastics.

“As the membership is aware, approximately 80 percent of the OHSAA’s revenues come from ticket sales at our tournaments,” OHSAA interim executive director Bob Goldring said in a memo to schools.

The individual state wrestling tournament in March along with the girls and boys state basketball tournaments in March were canceled due to the pandemic.

The OHSAA informed schools they will not be reimbused for tournament expenses for the 2020-21 school year. The OHSAA also will not pay bowling lane fees or golf tournament green fees.

Football and basketball presale ticket bonuses will not be paid out either.

Also, tournament tickets are expected to be sold solely online this year and not at gates. Sectional and district tournament tickets will be sold online for $8.

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