OHSAA tournament expansion gives hope to Marion-area fall sports teams. Here's how it does

MARION — When this fall's Marion Harding volleyball team won the first set at the Division I sectional opener against Grove City, it marked the first time the Presidents had taken a set in tournament play since 2017.

And in that 2017 season, Harding was a No. 42 seed that got by 50th-seeded Franklin Heights 3-0 before being blasted in the sectional final by top seed Dublin Coffman.

But now, there is hope for the Prexies.

"It’s not going to be easy per se, but the odds are we’re going to get to experience winning tournament situations from time to time," Marion Harding Athletic Director Sean Kearns said.

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What's changed?

The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced earlier this year that it was expanding the divisions for volleyball, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball starting in the fall of 2024. Last week, the OHSAA laid out the divisional breakdown for schools competing in volleyball and soccer.

"We’re thrilled to be honest, and there’s no other way to put it," Kearns said.

Since 1990, volleyball has been divided into four divisions, but the population has shifted over the decades, especially in central Ohio where the suburbs that surround Columbus have grown exponentially, changing the high school sports landscape.

In the late 1980s, Olentangy was a school no bigger than River Valley. Today, it is one of the five largest districts in Ohio in terms of enrollment. In that span, districts in Pickerington, Westerville, Dublin, Hilliard and Grove City have added large high schools. Small rural schools like Big Walnut and New Albany aren't what they used to be in size.

In the next decade, Columbus and its outskirts will continue to grow with Intel's microchip campus being built in western Licking County, plus other tech giants like Google and Amazon building facilities in central Ohio.

This is the pond in which Harding found itself swimming.

"Especially since we moved back into the Central (District), we’ve very much been on the small end of Division I, so we often have tournament matchups against schools that are two and three times bigger than us. That can be a tough hill to climb sometimes," Kearns said.

With the OHSAA taking the biggest 64 teams in the state and putting them in Division I and doing the same for the next 64 in Division II, Marion Harding now will be one of the biggest teams in its division as it goes from Division I to Division III in volleyball and soccer. There will be seven divisions for volleyball and five each for soccer, which formerly had three divisions apiece.

With volleyball, the Prexies have an enrollment of 394 girls, plus nine more tacked on for the competitive balance factor to bring their total to 403, which is nine below the cutoff to Division II. Instead of the big suburban schools, Harding's competition on the court at tournament time will be against teams like Walnut Ridge, Bishop Watterson, Mifflin, Whitehall, DeSales, Bexley, Jonathan Alder and Bloom-Carroll to name some.

In other parts of the state, Division III volleyball includes teams from Ashland, Sandusky, Lima Senior, Tiffin Columbian, Mansfield Senior, Madison Comprehensive, Zanesville and Lima Shawnee.

"For us, it feels like we’re finally going to be in with schools that are more close to our size, and I think it’s going to change our whole outlook as far as the tournament," Kearns said. "I think our coaches have done a great job of creating interest in our programs, but what I hope our kids get to experience is (a tournament run.)"

In recent years Harding has played in a D-I scene where there were more than 50 schools in the district. Harding volleyball now will have 18 schools competing with it for two regional spots, while girls soccer will have 11 teams going for one regional, and boys soccer will have 20 teams playing for two regionals berths, all in D-III.

"In Central Ohio, not only are we smaller, but it’s the most concentrated region in the state when talking about Division I and big Division I," Kearns said. "With this new divisional alignment, instead of there being 50 seeds, it’s going to be 1 through 16 or 17, so your opportunity in the early rounds should be better. It should be improved with the opportunities."

By the Numbers: Marion-area volleyball teams and tournament divisions

Not necessarily easier

There is hope for schools like Marion Harding, but the changes won't guarantee success.

In volleyball, DeSales, Granville, Bishop Hartley, Jonathan Alder and Bloom-Carroll are all top programs. In boys soccer, the Prexies will go against the likes of DeSales, Granville, Bishop Watterson, Bloom-Carroll, Hartley, Bexley, Columbus Academy and Jonathan Alder just as the girls will contend with Granville, B-C, Bexley, JA and DeSales among others.

"We don’t expect anything to be easy, but if you’ve been around athletics ... it’s a lot of excitement and spirit that it brings to your school and community," Kearns said. "That’s difficult when you’re talking about soccer and the central Ohio powers that be. That’s been difficult no matter what, and with volleyball, there’s an awful lot of good volleyball in central Ohio, too."

Last year River Valley arguably enjoyed its best boys soccer season in school history, going 12-6-1 and getting its first-ever All-Ohioan in Gabe Douce. The Vikings finished as runners-up behind state-ranked Ontario in the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference standings, and their reward was a No. 9 seed in the Division II district tournament. The Vikes beat No. 14 Bishop Ready 5-1 in the sectional before being knocked out by No. 5 seed Granville 8-0.

"I was glad to see (tournament division expansion) in the sense that it opens things up," RV boys coach Joel Richards said. "You were seeing the same teams win the state championships or compete in the Final Four every year for soccer.

"I’ve explained it to the players already. Most of them when I mentioned Bloom-Carroll and Granville and Jonathan Alder, (Columbus) Academy, Watterson and Bexley were not our problem in the district tournament, they got pretty happy with that."

All those powerhouses won't be on the same field as River Valley, Highland, Pleasant and the rest of the Division IV boys squads in central Ohio. However, they still need to contend with last season's D-III state runner-up Worthington Christian and regional qualifier Tree of Life.

"It’s definitely not a walk in the park, but competing for a district championship has become a lot more attainable. I didn’t say easier. I say more attainable," Richards said.

River Valley girls soccer coach Justin Hage agrees with his counterpart's assessment.

"I think it’s great for us," Hage said. "It puts us with schools that are closer to our size and takes us out of some of those teams that just destroy people every year. I think it will even the playing field a little bit for us and give us a little better shot when it comes to tournament time."

River Valley and Highland girls soccer teams will compete in Division IV with the likes of London, Buckeye Valley, Bishop Ready, Worthington Christian, Heath, Columbus Academy, Johnstown and Amanda-Clearcreek. North Union girls are Division V with Madison-Plains, Columbus School for Girls, Liberty Union, Tree of Life, Fairbanks, Northridge and West Jefferson.

"We’ll still have Worthington Christian who is really good, but you won’t have five teams who are brutal," Hage said referencing squads like Granville, Bloom-Carroll and Bexley among others. "It takes some of that out of it. It’s like some of the other sports where you can get farther and into a district final without playing three ranked teams. That’s kind of what we've had to do for a while."

Besides tournament opportunities, it should also open up spots for postseason honors like all-district and All-Ohio for players.

"Soccer is one of the hardest things to get an all-state player in," Hage said. "To get voted (all-district), you have to be first-team all-conference. We’re in with Clear Fork and Ontario who eat up a lot of those first-teamers. They take 12 players out of the Central District (out of 16 to 23 teams in the district), then the top three move on to all-state. It’s super hard to get all-state when Granville has two superstars and Bexley has a few, too."

By the Numbers: Marion-area girls soccer teams and tournament divisions

What about Highland volleyball?

The most successful fall sports program in the Marion area over the last decade-plus has been the volleyball team at Highland.

The Scots have won 11 consecutive league championships and hold the second longest conference win streak in Ohio history. Highland has earned regional trips the last three years in a row in Division II, and it has taken seven of the last 11 district crowns, playing for the district title 10 times in the span. The Scots also went to the state tournament in 2016 and finished as the state runners-up in 2019.

They obviously knew how to navigate the previous four-division alignment. Now it will be seven divisions.

"My first thought was it’s a good thing with more champions," Highland coach Rob Terrill said.

But he's going to take a wait-and-see approach.

"Generally looking at it, you lose about a round of the tournament," he said. "You start out in sectional finals or if you get a bye the district semis. It’s a change, and I guess it’s for the better. We’ll see in the long run."

Highland and River Valley move back two divisions and will be in Division IV along with Licking Valley, Buckeye Valley, Eastmoor, Fairfield Union, London, Columbus East, Bishop Ready, Worthington Christian, Horizon Science, Lakewood, KIPP Columbus, Heath and Marion-Franklin. Other familiar Division IV teams from around the state include Ontario, Lexington, Shelby, Urbana, Kenton, Benjamin Logan, Upper Sandusky, Graham and Indian Lake. Southwest Ohio powers like Mercy McAuley, Roger Bacon, McNicholas and Kettering Alter will be in D-IV, too.

"The way they’ve got it set up is they will have their own state representative because they have four regional spots, so we won’t have to go through Cincinnati if we want to get further," Terrill said as Hamilton Badin stopped the Scots in the last two Sweet 16 appearances when they went in that direction of the state.

North Union and Northmor will be Division V with Northmor being nine above the cutline for Division VI. Pleasant, Cardington, Elgin and Mount Gilead will be Division VI with Pleasant just two away from D-V and MG eight away from dropping down a division. Ridgedale is the lone D-VII squad in the area.

Another aspect Terrill doesn't like is that state semifinal volleyball games will not be played in Wright State's Nutter Center, only the seven state championships.

"That kind of loses some luster. You’re in the Final Four, but you’re not playing in that," he said.

The Scots should be loaded again in the fall with 10 letter winners returning, including multi-time All-Ohioans Larsen Terrill and Kameron Stover. Terrill said he talked to his team about the coming changes to the postseason, but they weren't fazed. They just want to get the season started no matter who is on the other side of the net.

"It will affect us when we look at who is out there in our division across the state and who is doing well," he said. "It’s a smaller number of schools to look at. We’ve cut it by a third basically. That will narrow it down a little. Maybe some schools we typically haven’t thought of we will see in a better light, so we’ll have to keep an eye on them.

"It’s going to make little changes here and there, but it’s still going to be volleyball. It’s going to be the best of five, and we’re still going to play hard and compete and see what happens."

All of the Marion-area teams will enter the 2024 fall season with a new hope.

By the Numbers: Marion-area boys soccer teams and tournament divisions

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This article originally appeared on Marion Star: A new hope: Marion-area fall sports teams like more divisions