Lakewood Football Moves To Division II

LAKEWOOD, OH - Lakewood High School Football has been busted down a division, to Division II, after OHSAA restructured all divisions for Fall Sports. Volleyball and soccer, boys and girls, will both remain in Division I assignments.

The decision to shake up divisional alignment was made using the Competitive Balance formula that OHSAA member schools voted into place in 2014. Every student on a team roster must be registered with OHSAA, regardless of whether or not they are on varsity, junior varsity, or freshmen teams. If a student's parents do not reside in the same district as the school, OHSAA modifies how that student is weighted when determining divisional placement. The system was specifically designed to "level the playing field" between public and private schools.

For Lakewood football, the change in division may be welcome. The team finished the 2016-2017 season 0-11. After the season, head coach Mike Ribar resigned his position. The district then hired Tom Hannan to lead the Rangers. Hannan was formerly an assistant coach at James A. Garfield High School in Garrettsville.

Lakewood's Athletic Director Sean Jackson emailed Patch to say, ""There are tough teams in every division. We play eight schools that are Division II. The change will be helpful in regards to increasing our chances of making the OHSAA playoffs."

According to OHSAA, 75 schools in Ohio moved up a division due to the Competitive Balance formula/a higher base enrollment number. In volleyball, 51 schools moved up a division. In girls soccer, 24 moved up a division and in boys soccer 30 schools moved up a division.

“This is a journey that we have been on for more than eight years to get to this point,” Dan Ross, OHSAA Commissioner, said in a press release. “Today’s approval of the fall sports divisional breakdowns is the result of countless hours of work by our staff and our member schools. For the first time in OHSAA history, enrollment isn’t the only factor in determining a school’s division in certain sports. But the journey isn’t over. We will study the results of this first go-around and discuss with the Competitive Balance Committee and the board.”

OHSAA said that its Competitive Balance Committee wanted to do something about the disproportionate number of state championships that are won by private high schools. Presumably, the new divisional alignments are meant to make the paths to championships harder for schools like Lakewood's St. Edward High School.

“The committee studied the competitive balance factors and we listened to the feedback from our member schools,” Ross said, noting that the first three Competitive Balance Proposals were voted down by the membership in 2011, 2012 and 2013. “As we’ve said all along, our goal is to keep public and non-public schools together in the same postseason divisions, but Competitive Balance will help place those schools in the correct division based on the makeup of their roster. We are very pleased that this is now off the ground and we can see the results. We’ll continue to gather feedback and see what changes, if any, the committee wants to propose to the membership to vote on in the future.”

Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch