Medina coaches oppose expanded OHSAA basketball divisions

In big-school high school tournament play in Ohio, everything has gotten smaller.

Last year, the Ohio High School Athletic Association increased the number of divisions in several sports, including basketball, which expanded from four to seven enrollment classifications.

As a result, Divisions I and II – which previously made up most of the old Division I – have shrunk to about 64 teams each, roughly half the size of Divisions III–VII.

While some around the state, particularly at smaller schools, may favor the change, the response in Medina has been sharply negative. Both varsity head coaches oppose the new format.

“I hate it,” Medina boys basketball coach Chris Hassinger said. “I think it’s completely unfair that there are 64 teams in Division I and Division II and about 130 in all the other divisions. It makes no sense. I think there needs to be probably five divisions because of the disparity between Division I schools. I think that would help. It’s a meat grinder in Division I.”

The move to seven divisions began in football in 2013. The reduction in the number of Division I schools is based on enrollment gaps between the largest and smallest programs. This year, Mason is listed by the OHSAA as having 1,335 boys, while Cincinnati Elder, the smallest Division I boys program, has 618.

Locally, Wadsworth and Highland are Division II boys basketball programs, with Highland at the smaller end of the division. Buckeye competes in Division III, while Cloverleaf has moved to Division IV.

On the girls side, Mason again is the largest program, with 1,255 students – nearly 800 more than Wadsworth, now the smallest Division I team. Highland, despite recent growth, is now Division III after years in Division I. Buckeye and Cloverleaf, longtime Division II programs, are now Division IV.

Medina girls basketball coach Karen Kase also voiced concerns, particularly with how the new format affects postseason opportunities.

Under the revised structure, large-school tournaments begin at the district level, eliminating sectional rounds. Those games often provided younger players with their first postseason experience.

“I am not a fan of the new format of skipping sectionals, especially since other divisions still have it,” Kase said. “We should be playing the same amount of total games and having the same brackets across the divisions. I wish the OHSAA would have considered some of these factors and listened to coaches’ preferences.”

Hassinger said the changes make regular-season preparation even more critical.

“That’s why we beef our schedule up so much and don’t always care as much about winning and losing,” he said. “Against Strongsville, we benched our whole top eight because these kids need to know what it’s like in a tournament atmosphere.”

Kase also questioned the motivations behind the expansion, noting that the OHSAA collects ticket revenue from all tournament games.

“The reasoning to expand to so many divisions is to allow for more state champions and more money-making opportunities for the OHSAA,” Kase said. “But it is not balanced, and there’s no reason Division I should have a different number of team entries than other divisions, which are split up equally. Also, in girls basketball in Northeast Ohio, many of the very best teams are Division II teams.”