OHSAA lawsuits

R

roughedge

Active member
I was just wondering if fall and spring high school sports get cancelled again in Ohio do you thing you would see parents taking State of Ohio or OHSAA to court for loss of opportunity to get a athletic scholarship.

I know most baseball players don’t start On there high school teams until junior and senior years in some of the bigger D1 schools. They do get to play summer ball though to get some more tape for colleges.
Wrestlers there are also guys started sport late that place at state junior or senior year that miss out on this opportunity.
Also may have may have kid last year made state only to get cut short hoping to show out in summer or next year only to have all cancelled.
Let’s just get back to normal life and bring on all the waivers
 
 
Interesting subject. My son is an upcoming senior. I have given this a lot of thought.

Does he just give up his senior year and look for college opens? Sort of like what we did through 8th grade. Wrestle a real aggressive schedule but in this case no pay off because he would lose his high school eligibility and forfeit a chance at a podium.

Wrestling college opens would expose him to college coaches etc.... why wait for HS to start? Maybe start, maybe not? Short season? I just think if you have a kid worth his weight in salt waiting for HS is a risky option....

Look to train at a club, an RTC, etc and make your own schedule has to be a better option at this point. I have no desire to sit around with my thumb up my waiting to see if OHSAA can can tell me if my kid can wrestle the same bs schedule we do every year.

I am looking at this as an opportunity for serious wrestlers to set their own schedules and not wait for the government/schools to dictate our agenda....

I have no idea how colleges would view this if a lot of HS kids just opted to wrestle college opens. Or how it would it effect HS programs. I just know there’s a lot of kids that just cannot sit around and wait for a HS season to start or maybe not start.

I think clubs should start recruiting HS kids hard and start putting a schedule together in case a HS season does not happen.
 
In the list of things that should be litigating against the state of Ohio over pitiful COVID policy/responses, prospective loss of college scholarship based on cancellation of school sport is pretty low on the list.

I would say business owners and the such have cases with greater merit, as there are specific actions taken that make them aggrieved parties.

The cancellation of school sports ties in as a legitimate action based on the cancellation of schools. Therefore, people with issues based on schools themselves being cancelled (i.e. special needs students not getting necessary services) would be higher on the food chain.
 
roughedge said:
I was just wondering if fall and spring high school sports get cancelled again in Ohio do you thing you would see parents taking State of Ohio or OHSAA to court for loss of opportunity to get a athletic scholarship.
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The OHSAA is an organization of member schools. There is no legal relationship between the organization and individual student-athletes. People can and do sue for any fool thing they can think of, but there's no case here.
 
You can sue for anything, if you win or not is a whole other issue. I'd imagine someone will try, but I'd also imagine it is thrown out quickly.

There is a bit of an optics issue here in general when looking at a return for high school sports. When you look at protocols being put in place for professional adult athletes, you'd think the protocols for minor student-athletes would need to be as good if we are talking about an actual health issue. It's an uphill battle because obviously schools are not funded in a way that's going to allow them to do most of the things these pro sports are doing. It gets even worse optically when looking at a sport like wrestling where all conventional means of mitigating risk goes out the window by the nature of the sport.

Unfortunately, as it stands right now, I would not bet on high school sports happening until the spring of next year. Maybe that changes in the coming months but that doesn't seem likely right now.
 
No one would sue the OHSAA because they aren't the ones making the call. They just follow the governor's orders, so they'd be suing the state, not the OHSAA.

That being said, case law has been settled time and time again that a college athletic scholarship is speculative and therefor you can't sue over losing the "opportunity" at one. This is often brought up as an issue in transfer and eligibility cases.
 
Gyms, which included grappling, did successfully sue for the right to open prior to the governor's mandate was lifted.

It's a different kind of situation, but it is interesting to note.
 
Cjlewis01 said:
Gyms, which included grappling, did successfully sue for the right to open prior to the governor's mandate was lifted.

It's a different kind of situation, but it is interesting to note.
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That's because there was some sort of inequity/inconsistency in application of the law to provide basis for their litigation (i.e. how come can "x" open up and "y" cannot).
 
The way I see it... the state and the local leaders are doing what they can to get the kids back in the schools in the fall. That's the focus. While the OHSAA may seem important to a few of us, they are relatively unimportant. While they may state differently, I don't think superintendants really care about the athletics at this point. Either way, simply returning to the classroom will be a tightrope walk in regards to total safety from a litigation point of view. It's impossible to look at this without seeing it through one of two pairs of goggles... You can be scared of the disease or believe it's harmless... your stance produces your particular side of the fence. The important part is too also realize that your stance also is going to be met with resistance. What I have come to see , is that when there is resistance, the big boys error on the side of caution... and a good case of CYA. As stated, school district don't have the budgets to regularly do the "DEEP CLEANING" that one side of the fence will need to feel safe. If they are requiring such high demands from the world of professional sports, one would think it would be equal to or greater for any minor, especially in a public school setting. For that reason, I see sports like wrestling in jeopardy this year. I just don't see how they are going to proceed by creating social distancing in the classrooms and hallways, only to allow a sport where the least social distancing starts with an act that has essentially been banded in public - the hand shake. The importance of the school system is education. Everything else is, as someone else put it, extra curricular. I don't see the leaders putting the school at risk, regardless of anyones perceived probability or belief, around the time of winter sports.

As for lawsuits... I'm not real sure what court is going to side with a desire to compete over the perceived safety of children....


Coach Root
 
The educational system has and will continue to fail our youth. Extracurricular is a very important part of education. Gpa higher, attendance better, less substance abuse, hard learning skills. I can go on but the educational leadership don't and will not understand. Leadership will be in short supply. The Pandemic isn't mentioned in the manual. How can they possibly free think. My opinion is more youth will die in traffic deaths than could die from covid. Some schools will have strong leadership and move forward. Others will find reasons to stayed bogged down in incompetence.

Go ahead and keep the kids home. They will adapt and overcome. All the while online learning will take over. The internet and Khan academy can educate the young. The money going into education will be reorganized. I think we all know where that goes. Competition on the internet will make education cost plummet. Colleges won't have housing and other profit staples. I guess there won't be a need for so many profs. Let's just get it over with. For every action there is a reaction.

Wrestling can be structured on the club levels. U14 thru U18 national champs. Folk,free and Greco. Then just move on to the present national system. Maybe feeder programs can be started for additional opportunities. These are just thoughts and opinions. But, I'll say it again. Warriors are needed to step up and lead. Stop being victims
 
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