Cutting nets for sectionals

W

Wcsfan

Active member
Don’t understand the cutting of nets for winning in sectionals. Only really see it going on in the rural areas. Is this because of lack of success? OHSAA doesn’t give out anything for it either. Just don’t understand.
 
 
Sectional has become a pretty dated distinction, anyways. In Central Ohio it is basically meaningless because you could win a tournament game on your own home floor and therefore be a “sectional champ”. I know in conversation with area fans, anything before “districts” or “district semi’s/district finals” is just a “tournament game.”
 
View it as a waste of time. Fully 90 per cent of the time, like The Dock says, they'd be cutting their own nets.
 
Sectionals aren't a big deal in Central Ohio because there are so many of them available. If you look at D-1, there are what, 4 Districts and 8 Sectionals? That's alot. Also, there's not a ton of parody in Central Ohio. Look at D4. Wellington and Grandview Heights were guaranteed to win their first round games by 30+ without breaking a sweat. Over the last 10 years, it's always the same schools (at least until competitive balance came) who make it. Granted, there are some exceptions, but it's not seen as much of an accomplishment because there is so little balance.

But it's not like that everywhere (mostly rural areas). Take the Mansfield/Madison District for Division 2. A 21-1 Upper Sandusky team squeaked by Mansfield Senior by a score of 62-61 on a neutral court for a Sectional title. That's a pretty solid accomplishment worthy of celebrating. Ontario is a school that wins 15+ games every year, but only has a couple of recent Sectional titles to show for it. They just knocked off Lexington, a team that made it to state a couple years ago, in the Sectional Finals. Isn't that worth celebrating when there's only 1 District champion within a 50 mile radius?

Another example: Delaware Christian has never won a Sectional title. Shouldn't they be able to celebrate it if they had won this year? They certainly couldn't win a District title against Wellington or Grandview. They had no chance and everyone knew it. Heck, nobody has a chance of winning a district in D4 Central this year except Wellington or Grandview. Can't they play for something? If East Knox had won one for the first time in 20+ years, shouldn’t they be allowed to celebrate? I say give them the option based on history and expectations. Not everyone is like Worthington Christian, Africentric, or Harvest Prep and has a chance to win a District every year.

So all that to say I totally see your point, especially if you've been in Central District your basketball life. Winning the MSL Ohio is a bigger accomplishment than winning a Sectional Title. But in many rural areas or smaller schools, it's a big deal worth bragging about IMO, especially for those schools in which it rarely happens.
 
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No one under 40 in NE Ohio knows what a sectional is! Seems the terminology was lost when OHSAA moved to 4 divisions and most districts ended up with fewer than 16 teams, meaning one win can put a team in the district.
 
Thought the same thing the other day after watching Defiance beat Wapakoneta. Especially in that case....there's another game happening in half an hour in the same gym. Seems like a waste of time, unless you're a school who has never won one.

BUT it's not really a big deal. You're only in high school once, let em live.
 
Grew up near and live in Delphos and in this area schools have been cutting down nets since I was in school 40+ years ago. All tournament games here are on neutral courts. What parts of Ohio has teams hosting tournament games?
 
Blue Jay Fan said:
Grew up near and live in Delphos and in this area schools have been cutting down nets since I was in school 40+ years ago. All tournament games here are on neutral courts. What parts of Ohio has teams hosting tournament games?
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Central , Northeast and East Districts higher seeds host sectional games
 
Many have home games in first round or 2 across the state. Helps with attendance early in tournaments
 
31 of 64 districts throughout the state on the boys side play the first two rounds at the higher seeded team. I didn't go through the girls brackets, but assume it to be probably close to the same.
 
USA70PP said:
31 of 64 districts throughout the state on the boys side play the first two rounds at the higher seeded team. I didn't go through the girls brackets, but assume it to be probably close to the same.
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Be like when a team beat Steubenville on their court for the sectional title and they raised the rims right after the games and told the winning school to kick rocks ?
 
Wasn't aware so many districts had teams play on their home court in tournament. Not sure that would fly here in NW/WC Ohio. My team played in a sectional final on Friday night. Attendance was estimated around 3,000.
 
Blue Jay Fan said:
Wasn't aware so many districts had teams play on their home court in tournament. Not sure that would fly here in NW/WC Ohio. My team played in a sectional final on Friday night. Attendance was estimated around 3,000.
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Must have been an awful lot of people standing. Bluffton's website says the Sommer Center holds 1500 :)
 
I don't know if they cut down nets for it, but in SE Ohio, winning a sectional is a big deal because all of the teams play their district games at the OU Convo.
 
Blue Jay Fan said:
Wasn't aware so many districts had teams play on their home court in tournament. Not sure that would fly here in NW/WC Ohio. My team played in a sectional final on Friday night. Attendance was estimated around 3,000.
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Now that I think about it, how different is that from 1-4 in football hosting 5-8 in the first game?
 
SeeYaSometime said:
Several years ago an Akron Parochial had shirts printed up for “Sectional Champs.” What a JOKE.
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So what? If someone wants to make em then why does it bother ya so much? Personally I wouldn't do it but if they thought it was a big enough of a deal then go for it. I've seen schools print junior high league champ shirts...no big deal.
 
My alma mater won something like 16 straight Sectional titles. I didn't know the Sectionals were an actual thing. That was until I saw another school cutting down nets for what I found out later was a Sectional championship. I was really confused. After some research, I learned it was their first ever Sectional championship.

I think it's more of an "in the eye of the beholder" type of thing.
 
Only the bad programs who win 1 game and celebrate a sectional championship that is not recognize by the state celebrate ,do this. I guess let them have a little fun ?
 
I saw a team that won a state title in the last few years cut down the nets after winning a sectional title Friday night. It’s a tradition in some areas.
 
serpico said:
I saw a team that won a state title in the last few years cut down the nets after winning a sectional title Friday night. It’s a tradition in some areas.
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Especially if no kids on the state champ team remain. In south west Ohio small school ball a conference title is often followed by cutting down the net. Probably not typical to cut down the net if you are on your opponets floor. Neutral sites or your home floor have at it.

I have two great memories of my kids playing sports in high school, one was the cutting down of the net following significant milestones of team progress, going where no team from the school had gone before.

The second one really surprised me how emotional I got watching it. Last football practice for seniors on team already eliminated from postseason. Coach put parents at goal post on one end of field, underclassmen in the stands to cheer on the seniors. Then he had seniors run one at a time from the far goal post to the parents waiting on the other side. Last time across the field for each senior as the next day they played an away game. That was this coaches tradition and was really an amazing emotional experience for the parents and kids.

One last thing, if you are a parent working at the game, take time to stop and watch the kids celebrate. Early with my oldest kids I thought I would be professional about completing my duties for the game and did not observe the team celebrate a rare accomplishment for the schools program. What a waste of an opportunity to enjoy the spoils of war! For some kids, a conference title or sectional title may be the greatest accomplishment in their athletic career, let them enjoy the moment. For schools who routinely win sectionals, they probably don't cut the nets until the district title.
 
I really don't care either way, but I never understood cutting down the nets after winning only one tournament game. When I played it took a minimum of winning 3 games to get to district. Back in the 60's and before you had to place in the top 2 in your county tournament to get to a one game sectional to qualify for district. Back in the 40's and before the top 2 teams from each county qualified for a 16 team district, so you had to play at least 3 county games and 4 district games to get to regionals.
 
I see schools getting the police/fire escort back home after winning a district title now....come on! It used to be if you won a State title you got that...it’s back to the theory of trying to give everyone a pat on the back and trophy.
 
RollingTrain said:
I see schools getting the police/fire escort back home after winning a district title now....come on! It used to be if you won a State title you got that...it’s back to the theory of trying to give everyone a pat on the back and trophy.
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Winning the District Title is be a big deal, especially in the smaller communities. I have no problem with fire truck escorts after winning the district. Small towns take a lot of pride in their teams. That is why the D4 public schools outdraw most of the other divisions at the State Tournament. They are not AAU driven teams.
 
Sectional trophies went away when girls sports came about. Money saver for the state. You can still see a lot of them in school's cases.
 
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