OHSAA fixes errors in enrollment figures

Shortly after new enrollment figures were unveiled in February, the OHSAA announced there was an error in data received from the Ohio Department of Education. Chris Lillstrung has the lowdown.

As it turns out, calling the original enrollment figures for the 2017-19 cycle released by the Ohio High School Athletic Association in early February “proposed” was a blessing in disguise.

Shortly after the initial numbers were unveiled and sent to member schools, the OHSAA announced there was an error in data received from the Ohio Department of Education.

A new set of numbers was proposed — some with drastically different results for News-Herald coverage area schools.

Only one area school — Madison — had the same boys and girls figures in grades 10-12 for the upcoming school year from the OHSAA — 383 boys, 356 girls — from the initial data released Feb. 6 and the tweaked numbers announced a few days later.

Everyone else had change — some marginal, others not so much.

Lake Catholic had a net drop of 53 with new figures of 310 boys and 256 girls. Benedictine had a drop of 46 to 264 boys on the new figures, and Beaumont was down 20 to 257.

Brush (plus-29), Geneva (plus-42), Hawken (plus24), Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin (plus-26), Riverside (plus-66) and West Geauga (plus-40) had sharp increases from the original figures to the tweaked ones.

So with tournament divisions for the 2017-19 cycle scheduled to be released April 6, the net increases and decreases from the 2015-17 cycle to this one are different than originally reported Feb. 6 by The NewsHerald.

In all, 13 area schools will have net increases in their figures compared with 201517, including Riverside at an area-best plus-86 with 549 boys and 509 girls for the new cycle. Geneva (64), Kirtland (56), Fairport (38), Chagrin Falls (37) and South (34) also had notable increases.

On the flip side, 19 had net decreases from 2015-17 to the new cycle. With 652 boys and 592 girls, Euclid had a net decrease of 119, followed by Mentor (104), Lake Catholic (83), Benedictine (72), Harvey (58) and Brush (57).

A full chart with the 2015-17 cycle enrollment figures and the proposed enrollments for the next cycle can be found accompanying this story.