Division III Girls Distict meet at Oak Hill with 33 teams!!!

[buddyholly]

Two weeks ago I looked at the OHSAA site to see when the district was and then yesterday I looked again to find something that I thought was UNBELIEVABLE and UNFAIR to the girls of Southern Ohio. Someone or someones have put 33 girl teams at Oak Hill for one district!!!!! Can anyone imagine 66 competitors in the high jump or any other event? In my opinion, this is unfair and ridiculous to all the schools that are supposed to compete at Oak Hill. Why can't 16 or 17 teams go compete at Chillicothe with the BOYS ????? Does anyone else think this meet is WRONG and UNFAIR !!!!!!!

[MTSWNGRVSG]

OHSAA at its best. I think they took care of the Central District at the expense of the Southeast District! Looks like they are telling the girls in Southeastern Ohio that they do not matter! For some strange reason I thought the student athlete was the most important part of high school athletes. I believe that only 4 athletes will advance out for each event.

[Track07]

Now coaches who coach boys and girls will now have to make a decision which team to coach. Because the finals for both races are set on the same day, this is the most ridiculous arrangement I have ever seen. Something needs to be done. Link below is contact information of the Southeast Ohio OHAAS. Let your voice be heard.

http://seodab.org/contact_us.htm

[Cookie]

I would believe this is a misprint. If you notice on the webpage Chillicothe D-III district has a boys division but not a girls division. I would think that about half of those girls teams will be at the Chillicothe district.

[Burg Track and CC Fan]

Yes, it is true there will be a girls district at Oak Hill with the possibility of 33 schools, four will qualify to the regional. I believe in 2002 there was the same situation but the district was held in Chilicothe. Wheelersburg's boys were DIII and there were no girls at the Fairland District, it did not seem like a district at all, very few fans.

The problem as I see it is there are 33 schools (32 if the rumor of Sciotoville not having a team) but few competitors for some of the events. So, the state cut our district. I also heard the girls will run Monday, Wed. and Sat. so a 3 day district for them.

[Cookie]

Wow, I stand corrected. This is crazy.

[Burg Track and CC Fan]

I just did some checking of results from Baumspage from last year. In the DIII Chillicothe meet the girls entered only 6 4X800 teams at Oak Hill there were only 5 4X800 teams entered. In the 100HH at Chillicothe only 14 were entered at Oak hill there were only 13 that is a total of 27 hurdlers out of 33 schools. In the 100 meter dash (the event everyone wants to run) Chillicothe has 22 entered and oak Hill had 19 entered a total of 41 out of a possibility of 66 runners.

Make no mistake these low numbers are the reasons for the girls basically losing a district meet to the Central District.

If we want to get the meet back we have to get more participants out for girls track.

[buddyholly]

Today Mr. Leffingwell, the president of the southeast ohio board call me back and tried to explain to me why the state threw two districts into ONE. As a girls track coach for over 20 years in Southeastern Ohio I feel the track girls in our districts are NOT being treated Fair!!! Maybe our numbers should be higher, but you know, track is a very demanding sport. Girls at our small high school aren"t busting down the doors to be on the track team, even though we've won over 13 conferences champions in the last 16 years. I really don't care what the state thinks about our numbers. Do you think having 33 teams at a district meet will encourage more athletes for the coming years? For that matter, why would I want to coach a team knowing that at our district meet will have the possiblity of 66 high jumpers and be held over a 6 or 7 day period. We will have to make 3 trips that last at least an hour and half one way for three days. That sounds like fun!!!! This meet is supposed to be about the athletes. Take 15, or 16 or 17 teams back to Chillicothe with their boys on ONE BUS!!!! I think that would be the BEST and FAIR thing to DO!!!!!!!! Or let's all go to the state meet with EVERY D.III TEAM !!!No qualifiying!!!!!!!! Who cares how many days it takes!!!

[The Watcher]

I have always been under the assumption that track -n- field districts and regionals have always been broken down on a geographic basis, not a numbers basis. I thought the breakdown of regions in the state was done to give each region's athletes equal opportunity to qualify to compete at a higher level, such as regionals and state. It is not the athlete's fault that there are not as many track athletes in this area - there simply aren't as many people living in southeastern Ohio as there are in other parts of the state.

I can see there point that there is not as many participants as there has been in the past, but at the same time, they do not know how the numbers will be this year. What are they going to do if the numbers change? What if the area schools get a big increase in participation? I also wonder if this scenario is just for this year, 2 years, or 3 years, etc. Also, does this mean that the combination of districts across the state will change year to year.

If my math is correct, there are 16 qualifiers for regionals from 4 districts. If there 2 districts are combined with a total qualifying amount of 4 participants, do the other two districts each get 6? Or did they stay at 4 qualifiers each and add another district to the regional?

[Burg Track and CC Fan]

I did some further checking on Baumspage, last year the Central District had two boys districts with 4 regional qualifiers each and the girls had only one district with 4 qualifiers to the regionals. So it is pretty obvious that we lost our extra district to the Central, I would say their coaches complained enough to the OHSAA during the last two years to get their way.

Please don't think I am on the side of the OHSAA. I am not, I was just telling you what justification the state used to do what they did. If the state does what they have done in the past with cross country, we do not have a chance of getting our district back until the 2012 season they have been using a two year cycle.

The district board had the option to have two meets but, they would only get 2 qualifiers each. I understand the DI coaches had input on that decision, but not the DII coaches.

[buddyholly]

I THINK YOU ARE CORRECT ABOUT WHY THE STATE TOOK AWAY ONE OF DISTRICTS. i DEFINITELY DON'T AGREE WITH THEM!!! Also I believe Mr. Leffingwell told me that Coaches Fraunfelter, Riffey and John Grimm gave input ot the SEO board as well. I still hope that there will be a DIII district in Chilly with the boys instead of haviing a MESS at Oak Hill with the 33 girls teams!!

[jumphigh]

Do any or many of those teams have only one coach for the boys and girls? If so it will be like cross country you will be forced to choose one team or the other

[Track07]

I know all Adams County Teams have 1 coach

[MTSWNGRVSG]

You could see coaches and even schools deciding to drop track in general.

Someone tell me if I am correct, there was at one time 4 divisions in track instead of 3 like now?

[Ironman92]

I'm the only coach at my school. Fortunatley we hired 2 junior high coaches so they can assist me. It's going to be crazy IMO.

[buddyholly]

I'm hoping that every Div. III girls coach (33) that has a team competing at Oak Hill this spring will not rest, till something positive is done to change the situation in the Southern Ohio disticts. DO NOT GET IN or UP!!!

[uhs_coach]

I really hope if this happens those 33 coaches will each remember this and Make every effort to enter 9 girls so that it doesn't happen again. I will guarantee that last year less than half of those 33 teams were counted because they did not or could not enter an official team at their District meet. That is what always makes it hard on us in the SE. We don't enter enough kids to count as teams with the state and with our geography being so spread out to start with it makes for very unfair competitive situations for everyone. We need to get teams on the line if we are ever going to have any hope of stopping this kind of treatment.

[jumphigh]

If I understand the 9 member thing correctly. There must be 9 athletes on the official roster and 9 girls entered on baumspage. Must they actually compete in an event

In cross they must start the race but it says nothing about finishing it. I believe one year there was a girl in a ankle cast at the line.

[buddyholly]

Since this sudden change of venue happened so late in the year, I don't see why it can't be changed back!!! Maybe the powers that be are Stubborn or don't like it if we Question Authority!!

[buddyholly]

I sure hope someone out there in our SEOTCA will go to bat for our girls in our small school division in this matter!!!!! Or should we all give up?