This year Ohio High School Athletic Association Commissioner Dan Ross said they decided to add a seventh division in football because of the enrollment disparity that exist in Division I, where the the top teams had two; even three times the number of boys in their school. Last year schools with 494 males in the lower three grades competed against school with over 1,200 boys. Unfortunately, this concern regarding enrollment disparity does not extend to cross country. The new OHSAA rule to determine cross country divisions has created the greatest enrollment disparity ever at the Division I level. There now will be schools in Division I where there is almost FIVE TIMES the number of boys in schools competing in Division I. Cleveland John Hay with 269 boys and Bishop Watterson with 277 boys will be competing against schools with as many as 1,266 boys. Cleveland John Hay will have 65 schools with more boys than them in Division II, but because of using combine enrollment for cross country they will be forced to move out of their normal division and compete at the Division I level. John Hays and Bishop Watterson now will be forced to compete against schools with as many as 1,266 boys. Why such a disparity at the Division I level in Cross Country? The OHSAA this year decided to take the combined enrollment of both the boys and the girls at a school and then divided by two to come up with the number to determine a school s cross country division. This is the only sport so far the OHSAA has changed the rule for determining a division. OHSAA Mission The Ohio High School Athletic Association's mission is to regulate and administer 1 / 15
interscholastic athletic competition in a fair and equitable manner while promoting the values of participation in interscholastic athletics as an integral part of a student's educational experience. Since the Ohio High School Athletic Association added girls sports Championships the OHSAA used each gender s enrollment in grade 9-11 to determine a team divisional assignment. OHSAA BYLAWS Revised by Referendum May 2013 BYLAW 2 CLASSIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION Section 1 Classification of Schools {ad}2-1-1 Classification and representation to tournaments will be calculated every other school year. The classification will be calculated in a school year beginning with an even numbered year for use in the next two school years. Boys classification shall be determined by the total number of boys enrolled in grades 9-10-11. Girls classification shall be determined by the total number of girls enrolled in grades 9-10-11. Once the above number is determined the division are divided equally based on the number of divisions (basketball has four, cross country has three). Why would the OHSAA do this? The issues that the OHSAA was trying to address: 1) Some schools only have one cross 2 / 15
country coach for both teams (boys/girls), 2) some school s cross country teams are in different divisions based on the number of boys in grade 9-10-11 and the number of girls in grade 9-10-11 and the number of schools offering the sport. Because of gender enrollment differences and because there are more boys teams, a few schools send their teams to different Regional sites, 3) extra cost of sending the teams to a different Regional site. Lets look at each issue. Issue1) Girls cross country was added 36 years ago as a separate sport. Many schools have not hired a separate head coach for the girls. It is reported that nearly 500 schools have one head coach for both teams. However, most schools have an assistant coach to help with the two programs. One of the smallest schools offering cross country Granville Christian Academy (37 boys and 41 girls in the lower three grades) has an assistant coach. BYLAW 3 ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITY AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTROL 3-2-2 When a male coach is assigned to a girls team, an adult female (non-high school student) should be present at the contest. When a female coach is assigned to a boys team, an adult male (non-high school student) should be present at the contest. If a school doesn t have a coach to represent each gender it seems to be a local school board issue and maybe a Title IX concern. Parents in school districts should voice their concern for the lack of appropriate supervision. It is not an OHSAA issue. Issue 2) some school s cross country teams are in different divisions based on the number of boys in grade 9-10-11 and the number of girls in grade 9-10-11 have gone to different District or Regional site. Several schools that run at separate Regional sites in the past few years have freely chosen to do so for competitive reason via selections at the district seeding meeting This new rule does not guarantee teams will go to the same Regional site. If each school would have a coach assigned to each gender this would not be a problem. Yes, a few schools might have a parent that has to make a choice which child to watch if they 3 / 15
are assigned to different sites based on being in a different division. This number is extremely small and it already occurs in other sports where soccer and volleyball tournament games are at the same time. Issue 3) the extra cost of sending the teams to a different Regional site. Cross country is allowed to compete in 16 regular season competition. Most schools run around 10. Baseball and softball allow 27 games plus 4 exhibition games which can be played during tournament time. Since cross country is one of most inexpensive sport a school can offer are you saying the school doesn t want to spend the money to send their girl s team to the District or Regional Championships? This new rule will cause Division II schools in Licking and Fairfield County to drive by the Pickerington Regional site to go to the Troy Regional site. Last year some of these schools drove less than fifteen miles to Pickerington, but now will drive over 100 miles to the Troy Regional site. Last year these schools had a choice which Regional to attend, this year they do not get a choice with the new rule. Plus, it looks like some school s teams could go to different Regional sites. How has the combined enrollment used in cross country affected teams and individuals? Most schools are not affected. However, a number of student athletes and schools are greatly affected. What do the cross country coaches think? In 2011 then president, Scott Dorne of the Ohio Association Track & Cross Country Association wrote to the OHSAA Board of Directors It is quite clear though that our membership finds the idea of using a single divisional assignment for a school not in the best interest of the student-athletes and their coaches in the sport of cross country. Moving programs out of their natural division creates competitive advantages/disadvantages and does not solve 4 / 15
the problem. At the OATCCC Coach s Clinic last January, Brenda Murray OHSAA Coordinator of Web Site and myohsaa presented the combined enrollment plan. A coach raised his hand and asked if a school has 40% one gender and 60% another gender, if the 60% gender causes the 40% gender to move up a division is there any consideration for adjustment or are you saying that gender is basically screwed. Her response was yes that is basically what we are saying. When she asked what school the coach was from, she then replied you are one of the schools greatly affected. Current president, Ed Lidderdale of the OATCCC responded by saying once we implement a new rule, if we see there is a problem we can make adjustments later The questioner responded if you know there are problems why not make adjustments before you implement it. Enrollment Disparity that Exists in Division I With the combined enrollment being used for cross country there are 641 teams and 3 divisions. Football now has 7 divisions for 715 schools. From the OHSAA magazine The plan for adopting an additional division (in football) was in response to a concern by some OHSAA member schools about the enrollment disparity that exists in Division I, where the current range is 494 males at the lower end of the division to 1,164 at the top. Based on current enrollment data, the lower end of Division I would increase to 600 males. From The Columbus Dispatch The big issue was that a lot of schools on the lower end of Division I felt they never had a chance to contend for a state championship when the top teams had two, even three times the number of boys in their school, OHSAA commissioner Dan Ross said. The plan we ve put into place is not perfect by any means, but it s a step forward in reducing the discrepancy we had before. 5 / 15
Unfortunately, OHSAA Commissioner Dan Ross wasn t taking about cross country. So how has the new cross country combined enrollment affect Enrollment Disparity that exists in Division I? The new policy created the greatest disparity ever in Division I. Cleveland John Hay has 269 boys in the lower three grades while Mason has 1266. This disparity is nearly 5 times. Bishop Watterson is not far behind with only 277 boys. Both John Hay and Watterson are forced to move up to Division I while their football teams will be in Division IV. Watterson has the greatest gender disparity of any school in Ohio with 38% boys and 62% girls. 65 schools will have more boys in their schools than Cleveland John Hay and Bishop Watterson but will be running in Division II as they do not have the large gender disparity these two schools have. A few other schools with significant gender disparity caused one team to move out of their Normal Division : Baltimore Liberty Union (200 boys/147 girls), St. Martin deporres (140 boys/275 girls) Recently the OHSAA reported over 100 girls play on their high school football team. If this is the case shouldn t the OHSAA use the combined enrollment rule for football? A number of girls also are on the boys wrestling team should combined enrollment also be used here? I am sure the football coaches, athletic directors and principals would be up in arms if the OHSAA used combined enrollment for football. What causes the gender disparity? One reason for the impact on the Columbus Catholic schools is because there is one allboy s school but no all girls school in Franklin County. Bishop Ready -153 boys and 183 girls, boys forced moved up to Division II; Bishop Hartley 210 boys and 334 girls, causing the girls to move down to DII; St Francis DeSales 292 boys and 353 girls, girls move down to DII. Bishop Watterson 277 boys and 439 girls, forcing their boys team to Division I. St Frances DeSales is now the largest girls team in Division II by 19 girls. 6 / 15
Two years ago Baltimore Liberty Union had 152 boys and 152 girls. This year their numbers are 200 boys and 147 girls forcing their girl s team to move up to DII. The average disparity statewide in only 25 students, Watterson has 162 more girls than boys meaning their disparity is 6.5 times larger than the average. There is no adjustment for schools greatly affected by this new rule creating major competitive disadvantages for those schools, no matter how significant. What can be done to remedy the problem of schools with major gender disparities? The myohsaa Sport Participation Card could be enhanced to include the following additional data field: Does a school want to participate as a combined enrollment (single division) school or as separate teams for the sport of cross country. This field could be defaulted to combined enrollment and the school would then need to declare that it wanted to be treated separately. This would put the responsibility at the local level where administrators could decide how they want their cross country programs to operate. If desired, there could be a disclaimer that states that any school that elects to be separate, assumes all organizational and financial responsibilities if the girls and boys teams are assigned to separate District and/or Regional locations. If the above could not be accomplished this year the few schools which are greatly affected because of the large gender disparity could receive a waiver to stay in their normal division based on their single gender so not to create a major competitive disadvantage for these student athletes. Can a school appeal their divisional assignment to allow a school with such a large disparity to return to their Normal Division? The Watterson Athletic Director asked for consideration to return their boy s team to Division II. The OHSAA commissioner Dan Ross and the Board of Directors turned his request down. 7 / 15
How does this new rule affect individual athletes? Student athletes moved down from their normal division could take away honors and deny someone in their normal division from advancing to the Regionals or States. Students athletes forced to move up from their normal division could lose out on honors or the ability to move on to the Regionals or States because of the competitive disadvantage.. To earn All District honor (top 16) last year in the Central District the following times were needed: Boys - Division I-17:31, Division II-18:02, Division III-18:54; Girls Division I 20:40, Division II 21:21, Division III 22:17. To earn All State honors (top 25) in the OHSSA State Cross County Championships: 2012-Boys Division I 15:53, Division II 16:24, Girls- Division I 18:41, Division II 19:13, Division III-19:17; 2011 Boys Division I 16:00, Division II-16:45, Girls Division I 18:49, Division II 19:24, Division III-19:35. Some college coaches award more scholarship money to a student athlete who receives All State honor, plus some student athletes might not earn other honors like All District which reduces their chances of other types of scholarships. At schools where there are major gender disparities; the athlete in the smaller gender could be discouraged from participating in the sport due to the competitive disadvantage this rule causes. How many teams in each division this year? Division Average Enrollment - The average of each school's male and female enrollments are used to determine their tournament division for cross country. 8 / 15
Schools I 324.5 and more 213 II 167.0 to 324.0 213 III 166.5 and less 215 Total Teams 641 The real numbers for Divisional assignments by gender This has been updated to reflect last month s changes Boys Teams (5 or more runners) D1-198 D2-193 D3 197 9 / 15
Total Teams 588 Girls Teams (5 or more runners) D1-174 D2-172 D3 145 Total Teams 491 Below is the 2011-2012 OHSAA Tournaments Breakdown Boys Cross Country Division Enrollment Schools 10 / 15
I 338 and more 190 II 177 to 337 190 III 176 and less 189 Total Schools 569 Girls Cross Country Division Enrollment Schools I 331 and more 169 II 168 to 330 168 III 167 and less 169 Total Schools 506 11 / 15
So do you think the OHSAA New Cross Country Divisional Assignments using combined enrollment is Fair? - Equitable? I don t think so!! After reading this what can I do? 1) Live with it and wait for combined enrollment to be used in other sports moving teams out of their normal division creating more competitive advantages/disadvantages 2) A lawyer could step up and find a student athlete negatively affected and have the school sign on to challenge the rule Perhaps a Title IX issue. 3) Schools and parents could contact the OHSSA to voice their concerns http://www.ohsaa.org OHSAA Commissioner Dan Ross - dross@ohsaa.org (614) 267-2502 12 / 15
OHSAA Board Members Mark Knapp, president - Superintendent, Wheelersburg Local School District mark.knapp@wheelersburg.net (740) 574-8484 Beth Hill, vice president Principal, Newark Catholic H.S., bhill@cdeducation.org (740) 344-3594 Phil Ackerman - Director of Administrative Services, Ohio Valley Educational Service Center, phil.ackerman@omeresa.net Jim Borchik - Assistant Principal/ Athletic Administrator, Copley H.S., jim.borchik@copley-fairlawn.org Tim Cook - Assistant Principal/Athletic Administrator, Mt. Orab Western Brown H.S., tim.cook @wb.k12.oh.us Phil Harris - Principal, Plain City Jonathan Alder H.S., harris@japioneers.org Gary Kreinbrink - Athletic Administrator, Leipsic H.S., lp_kreinbrink@lp.noacsc.org Bret Mavis - Principal, Chillicothe Zane Trace Middle/Junior H.S., bmavis@ztlsd.org 13 / 15
Jonas Smith - Athletic Administrator, Dayton Public Schools, jsmith@dps.k12.oh.us Bruce Brown - Athletic Administrator, Uniontown Lake H,S., brownbruce@lakelocal.org Sarah Dove - Director of Government Relations and Outreach, Ohio Department of Education, sarah.dove@education.ohio.gov Ed Lidderdale, president OATCCC - Sandy Valley H.S., etiam@aol.com Cross country liaison Dale Gabor - dgabor@ignatius.edu 4) Contact the OHSAA sponsors and advertisers and voice your concerns Burger King Farmer s Insurance Marathon American Dairy Association 14 / 15
Kettering Sports Medicine Ohio National Guard Please forward this article to your running friends. Anyone who runs, coaches runners or is a parent of a runner should not sit back and accept this new rule. It is not Fair or Equitable to many student athletes and schools!! A few articles on the above issue - http://www.runohio.com/index.php/news/628-new-h igh-school-cross-country-division-breakdown-draws-criticism-from-timereportercom 15 / 15