Way to go little man
When I found out Friday the OHSAA revoked its new rules for aligning divisions I was the happiest guy around.
OK area Division VI football coaches may beg to differ with that last statement because they were pretty happy too.
When me and the boys at The Courier found out about this plan in August we couldn’t believe it.
There was something just not right about the whole thing. I think everyone could live with the changes in other sports, moving 4 percent of the schools in Division I down and adding a few schools to the other divisions was a doable proposition.
But football was a whole different story.
To make Division I 72 schools and put 138 in Division VI just wasn’t right especially when both divisions were going to get 32 playoff spots.
Honestly, we were the first and really only newspaper in the state to write about the proposal from the small school perspective. There were other stories from newspapers around the state like Cleveland, Canton, Columbus, Dayton, Massillon and Cincinnati but they all praised the plan because they looked at it through OHSAA-colored glasses and from a Division I schools perspective.
We were standing up for the little guy.
The more we looked at it the more it looked like a poorly thought out plan. The Blue Ribbon Committee that came up with the division realignment plan didn’t have one single person representing a Division VI football school. The only person on the panel from a school that size was a representative from Worthington Christian who doesn’t field a football team. Hell, the OHSAA couldn’t even give us a list of who was on the committee. We had to get it “leaked” to us from someone on the committee themselves. And even when we asked the committee members questions they told us they thought it was a secret discussion and there were things said they wouldn’t want out in public.
Another thing that bothered us was why the schools in the smallest 2 percent in enrollment being taken out of the count when dividing the schools between Divisions II-VI and then adding them back to Division VI giving D-VI an extra 13 schools. We asked people on the committee why they did that and NO ONE could answer it. The best explanation I received is that “It was just something they came up with.” That’s no freaking answer.
So we wrote about it in news stories and took the OHSAA to the woodshed in a couple of columns. We brought it to light and the small schools did the rest by complaining to the OHSAA about the changes. The small schools let the voices be heard and the OHSAA blinked.
I’d like to think the stories we wrote and the links to them I posted on the Internet to help get people all fired up helped bring about the OHSAA revoking the plan. But it was satisfying to see the OHSAA take the feelings of small schools into account and decide to scrap the whole bloddy mess.
NEWSWORTHY:
Findlay Courier Monday Sports Roundup
Fremont News Messenger Monday Sports
Mansfield Madison shoots down Galion
BG Sentinel Tribune weekend sports
Upper Sandusky boys gun down Redmen
Bucyrus area weekend sports
Defiance Crescent News sports section
Fostoria Review Times Monday Sports
OK area Division VI football coaches may beg to differ with that last statement because they were pretty happy too.
When me and the boys at The Courier found out about this plan in August we couldn’t believe it.
There was something just not right about the whole thing. I think everyone could live with the changes in other sports, moving 4 percent of the schools in Division I down and adding a few schools to the other divisions was a doable proposition.
But football was a whole different story.
To make Division I 72 schools and put 138 in Division VI just wasn’t right especially when both divisions were going to get 32 playoff spots.
Honestly, we were the first and really only newspaper in the state to write about the proposal from the small school perspective. There were other stories from newspapers around the state like Cleveland, Canton, Columbus, Dayton, Massillon and Cincinnati but they all praised the plan because they looked at it through OHSAA-colored glasses and from a Division I schools perspective.
We were standing up for the little guy.
The more we looked at it the more it looked like a poorly thought out plan. The Blue Ribbon Committee that came up with the division realignment plan didn’t have one single person representing a Division VI football school. The only person on the panel from a school that size was a representative from Worthington Christian who doesn’t field a football team. Hell, the OHSAA couldn’t even give us a list of who was on the committee. We had to get it “leaked” to us from someone on the committee themselves. And even when we asked the committee members questions they told us they thought it was a secret discussion and there were things said they wouldn’t want out in public.
Another thing that bothered us was why the schools in the smallest 2 percent in enrollment being taken out of the count when dividing the schools between Divisions II-VI and then adding them back to Division VI giving D-VI an extra 13 schools. We asked people on the committee why they did that and NO ONE could answer it. The best explanation I received is that “It was just something they came up with.” That’s no freaking answer.
So we wrote about it in news stories and took the OHSAA to the woodshed in a couple of columns. We brought it to light and the small schools did the rest by complaining to the OHSAA about the changes. The small schools let the voices be heard and the OHSAA blinked.
I’d like to think the stories we wrote and the links to them I posted on the Internet to help get people all fired up helped bring about the OHSAA revoking the plan. But it was satisfying to see the OHSAA take the feelings of small schools into account and decide to scrap the whole bloddy mess.
NEWSWORTHY:
Findlay Courier Monday Sports Roundup
Fremont News Messenger Monday Sports
Mansfield Madison shoots down Galion
BG Sentinel Tribune weekend sports
Upper Sandusky boys gun down Redmen
Bucyrus area weekend sports
Defiance Crescent News sports section
Fostoria Review Times Monday Sports
posted by --J-- @ 9:39 AM
15 Comments:
At 2:36 PM,
Anonymous said…
As a Hardin Northern fan, I'd like to thank you for anything you and The Courier did to help. It was a ridiculous idea from the beginning, and I'm glad people like you guys spoke up. I wish I could nominate you for some award or something.
At 2:57 PM,
Anonymous said…
What concerns me most is that NOBODY would talk about it. Somebody needs to take that fact to Dr. Ross. That kind of crap can't happen...don't put together a plan, and nto tell us how the plan was developed...it just wreaks of politics and screwing!
At 7:57 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hats off to you and The Courier Jamie. This was an obvious plan to railroad a plan to give the D-1 schools an easier time in making the playoffs. Under this proposal, nearly half of the D-1 schools would have made the playoffs. It's concerning that the committee did not have a voice from the small schools.
Thanks again.
JDee
At 5:23 AM,
Anonymous said…
Umm, yeah, it was the Courier that forced this change. Do not get me wrong, I am glad it was taken care of. For the Courier and Baker to take credit is silly. The people in charge od OHSSA probably have never heard of the Courier....
At 6:43 AM,
Anonymous said…
Did they decide to revoke the plan because of what the Courier wrote? No. They did it because the small schools complained about the unfairness of the plan. But the newspaper thru its stories threw a few pebbles into the pond which created a few waves that stirred many of the small schools up enough that they complained to the OHSAA, thus so changes were made.
At 11:07 AM,
Anonymous said…
Bubba, Thanks for all you guys have done and continue to do for all of us involved with D-6 football! If I ever run into you remind me to buy you a PBR.
Many SW Thanks
RP
At 12:20 PM,
Anonymous said…
Yeah, the Courierthrew a few pebbles, but the Courier is one of many many many newspapers in Ohio, many of which cover quality football programs. Those papers threw rocks.
At 12:42 PM,
Anonymous said…
I coach football (yeah at the Division VI level) and I never saw anything in any other newspaper about it. I read the Lima News, Blade and other area papers. No one even talked of the rammmifications of it. Except a little blurb in a column in the Delphos paper,
I did manage to Google up a few stories about the change and from the beginning of footbll seaosn and all were positve on the idea taking the OHSAA stance.
So even though, you may not think so not many other media stuck up for the little guy...they did.
At 6:49 PM,
Anonymous said…
It was all over JJ huddle and other sports sites. You read 2 or 3 papers, I googled Ohio newspapers. I found a list of almost 200. Your right, I am sure the Courier is the only paper to carry the story. Now if they could only report on the doings of Donnell stadium...
At 5:35 AM,
Anonymous said…
I don't think Jamie took credit for this change, he's just happy for the small schools in the area. I do feel he and The Courier rose awareness to this proposal. I'm not sure many were even knew what was going on until it would have been too late.
JDee
At 8:10 AM,
--J-- said…
Wow while the cat is away the mice will play :)
From one of the anonymous posters...
"It was all over JJ huddle and other sports sites. You read 2 or 3 papers, I googled Ohio newspapers. I found a list of almost 200. Your right, I am sure the Courier is the only paper to carry the story. Now if they could only report on the doings of Donnell stadium..."
Care to post a list of those stories critical of the plan Trojanfootball?
Insert stunned silence here
You can't because it's not true.
There were stories in other newspapers about the situation in late August. But they ALL praised the plan by the OHSAA because they took the story from the angle of the Division I schools that would benefit.
How do I know? I was reading them. I was doing Google News searches and reading about 30 sports sectionals a day via the AP's list of Ohio Newspapers. As you can see by the newslinks I post I look at the sports sections of the 29 NW Ohio daily newspapers every single day.
http://www.ap.org/ohio/newspapers.html
Do we take credit for the change the OHSAA made...no. The small schools across the state who the plan would have hurt did that themselves.
Did we try to fire up local small schools and tell them what's going on because they had no idea what had happened? You're damn freaking right.
But to come on here and say other media outlets were writing stories critical of the OHSAA plan...is an absolute untruth.
I'm off my soapbox. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
At 11:55 AM,
Anonymous said…
Yeah you better get off the box...for obvious reasons :)
At 12:28 PM,
Anonymous said…
Why should we Insert stunned silence?
At 1:03 PM,
--J-- said…
It's silent because we're still waiting for those 200 links...you said there out there.
At 1:53 PM,
Anonymous said…
Typical journalist misquote. I did not say there were 200 links, I said there are nearly 200 newspapers on Ohio, I highly doubt the Courier is the only paper that covered the story. My original point came my amusement of the patting yourself on the back because they reversed their decision. Once again, I think its great they made the right choice. I just dispute that the Courier had a part in it.
Post a Comment
<< Home