To a man, the Hilltopper players and coaches never complained about their opponent on Friday night.
Editor’s note: Matt Jaworski is the GTV play-by-play voice of the Hilltoppers and has covered every game the past five seasons.
To a man, the Hilltopper players and coaches never complained about their opponent on Friday night.
Like members of the military preparing for war, they accepted who they had to fight and took the challenge to heart.
It didn’t matter that the team they were playing, Toledo Central Catholic, is an open enrollment school that heavily recruits and features multiple players who will be playing at the Division I college level.
It was the team the Ohio High School Athletic Association deemed, through a broken formula, that Chardon must play in the Division III semifinal.
In reality, the Fighting Irish have no business playing in Division III — not with an all-star roster of the top players in Lucas County and Northwest Ohio.
No public high school football team in Divisions II or III that is not in an open enrollment district can compete against a team built more like a Division II college roster.
Just look at Hoban’s and TCC’s scores this year against their divisional opponents. It has not been close.
When it comes to playing against schools in the same division, there is nothing competitive about these schools designed to be among the best in the state.
Prior to the start of the season, many high school football followers picked the following schools to make the state finals in their respective divisions: St. Edward (Division I), Hoban (Division II) and Toledo Central Catholic (Division III).
If not for an overtime loss to Springfield on Nov. 24, Archbishop Moeller would be on that list in Division I, too. St. Xavier and St. Ignatius are normally juggernauts as well and have a say in who makes the state title game.
It should not be that easy to pick the teams playing in state title games, but the OHSAA continues to use a system rewarding schools that recruit and punishing public schools whose rosters are only made up of the students who live within their districts.
The stark reality facing football teams throughout Ohio is this: the state’s current competitive balance system is broken, and has created a situation where open enrollment schools who heavily recruit elite talent are set up for long, dominate runs as state champions.
A system that was designed to bring fairness and competitiveness to the playoff system has instead created a situation where the likes of St. Eds, St. Xavier, Moeller, Hoban and TCC will likely bring home state titles for years to come.
Without action, the playoffs will simply be a formality.
Major reforms need to happen to football’s competitive balance system — and there is no easy fix.
Following Chardon’s loss, Head Coach Mitch Hewitt openly wondered if TCC, the reigning Division II state champions who beat Hoban last year, could win the Division I state crown.
I’m guessing many of the Fighting Irish’s opponents this postseason had the same thought.
They have a roster that could give the John Carroll Blue Streaks a challenge.
Over the years, I have never been a proponent of separating the open enrollment schools from public schools. It has become clear, though, that some of these schools must be treated differently to allow for competition. A handful of schools should not rule the top three divisions.
Prior to going on the air Friday night, my G-TV broadcast partner Ryan Radke pointed out the ridiculousness of the current system and came up with an idea: no open enrollment team that wins a state title should be moved down the following year.
And while this should be part of the solution, even more needs to be done.
The OHSAA makes a lot of money off the high school football state tournament. It’s time OHSAA Executive Director Dough Ute, his staff and the OHSAA Executive Board make changes to the system. If they don’t, then it’s up to the member schools to force change by any means necessary.
Maybe recent success needs to be a part of the formula, or coaches gather after Week 8 to recommend any open enrollment schools that should move up to a specific division.
But in an age where nearly all Division I teams make the playoffs, this would not create a major impact either.
Again, there’s no simple and obvious solution.
The OHSAA should not move all open enrollment teams to Division I. For teams such as Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, Youngstown Ursuline, Lake Catholic, Bishop Watterson, Trinity and others, it would be unfair and unjust. And this doesn’t take into consideration public schools such as West Geauga, Berkshire and others that, despite open enrollment, struggle to consistently put a winning team on the field.
Along the same thought process, open enrollment schools should not be lumped into their own separate divisions. The vast majority of them should be left alone, as they are not trying to be football powerhouses.
It’s the few that have ruined things for two divisions in Ohio.
The heart of the problem lies in the all-star rosters the high school behemoths have created. These all-county or all-region teams have thrown competitive balance out the window.
In a sense, Hoban and TCC have gamed the system, because they have enrollment figures low enough to keep them out of Division I. While they do not have Division I enrollment numbers, the talent on their rosters is clearly at the Division I level. This has to count for something and needs to be taken under consideration when assigning divisions.
Outside of a rare close game, such as Hoban’s 17-14 win against Avon in the state semifinals, it’s been a cakewalk against other Division II teams. TCC was not challenged this year by any Ohio team.
The games have been uncompetitive and nearly unwatchable.
A simple eye test says teams such as Hoban, St. Eds, TCC, St. X, etc. should all be lumped into the same playoff division together.
Ask Riverside Head Coach Dave Bors if it’s fair his teams have to face a Hoban program that can compete with St. Edward in the postseason. The same can be asked of Hewitt regarding TCC.
Without change, the same powerhouses will likely be hoisting the state championship trophy well into the foreseeable future in Ohio’s top three divisions.
How much longer will OHSAA wait to take action?
This year, the OHSAA cost Chardon and Avon the opportunity to play for a state championship. Future inaction will cost other schools their rightful shots at earning a state title of their own.
