OHSAA releases divisional breakdowns

By CHUCK RIDENOUR Daily Globe Sports Editor

The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced its new divisional breakdowns for fall and winter sports for the upcoming school year this week.

None of the sports programs at Shelby were affected by the new numbers with the exception of boys bowling.

The bowling Whippets have been in Division II since their inception, but for the 2022-23 school year they will make the jump to Division I.

With their base enrollment of 247 boys, SHS is the smallest school in the big division.

The Shelby girls were two students away from also being in the large school school for bowling.

The Lady Whippets, with their base enrollment of 235, are tied with Ravenna as the largest girls program in Division II bowling.

SHS continues as a Division IV school in football and Division II in volleyball, golf, girls tennis, boys and girls cross country, girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, wrestling, and boys and girls swimming.

The Mid Ohio Athletic Conference, which Shelby is a member of, remains mostly at Division IV in football and Division II in almost other sports. The exceptions are Marion Harding, the largest school in the league, which is Division I, and Marion Pleasant, the smallest school in the conference, which is Division III, in many sports.

Some schools in the MOAC did make some divisional moves because of their enrollment and competitive balance numbers and they include:

— Ontario goes up to Division III (from Division IV) for football.

— Galion drops down to Division III (from Division II) for volleyball.

— Marion Pleasant drops to Division III (from Division II) for boys cross country.

— Galion drops to Division III (from Division II) for girls soccer.

— Highland drops to Division V (from Division IV) for football.

— Galion drops to Division III (from Division II) for girls basketball.

— Clear Fork drops to Division III (from Division II) for girls basketball.

Plymouth remained at Division VII in football and is either Division III or IV in all other sports.

There were just two changes in the

Firelands Conference, which the Big Red have membership in, and both were fall sports.

Mapleton moves up to Division VI (from Division VIII) in football and Crestview move to Division II (from Division III) in boys golf. The Cougars are the smallest school in Division II for golf.

Because of a lack of numbers, it appears New London will be playing eight-man football this season.

Student enrollment data, boys and girls, provided by the Ohio Department of Education is used to create the OHSAA’S two-year base enrollment for each high school.

Additional competitive balance date is then utilized for the sports of football, soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball.