OHSAA Releases Restructured Spring Sport Schedule

 
If Ohio schools get closed for remainder of school year, spring sports will be cancelled. If they resume May 4, they have tentative dates in place.

Link to OHSAA announcement: https://ohsaa.org/news-media/articles/school-administrators-update-april-8

Tentative schedule if school resumes May 4:

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StateChampion2012 said:
So if they manage to start the season, there will be like 6-7 games before tournament. Better than nothing!
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It's a throwback to the days when Ohio had spring football. For the schools that participated in spring football, they would hastily throw together a baseball team and play a few games before the tournament began.
 
StateChampion2012 said:
Had no clue spring football was ever a thing in Ohio
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As I said earlier, many schools did not participate because they preferred to put more focus on their spring sports teams.

Spring football existed in the '30s for sure, possibly also the late '20s. The coaches' association voted to eliminate it during the middle of WWII in order to conserve scarce equipment and show support for the war effort. Spring football was reinstated after WWII until member schools finally voted in December of '55 to eliminate it beginning with the '56-'57 school year. In a nutshell, 1956 was the last spring that HS football drills were allowed in Ohio. Teams who participated would practice for about 3 weeks and play a couple games/scrimmages.

Interesting factoids from that 1955 vote:
- There were 1053 member schools. There are roughly 820 now.

- Principals voted 633 to 208 to lower the eligibility age from 20 to 19. An athlete was ineligible to compete after attaining the age of 19 with the following exceptions, the athlete could complete the fall season if he turned 19 after Sept, the athlete could complete the winter season if he turned 19 after Nov. 1, and the athlete could complete the spring season if he turned 19 after March 1. 1 editorial I saw regarding this rule change indicates it was much-needed. Pennsylvania already had this 19-year-old age limit, so juniors from PA used to move to Ohio to take advantage of Ohio's 20-year old age limit.

- Principals voted 256 to 115 to ban football practices between December 1 and August 20. If I understand things correctly from the final years of the spring football era, if you did not participate in spring football, you could begin practicing on August 20. If you participated in spring football, you could not begin practice until September 1. The main issue surrounding this vote was that all member schools could vote on this particular item, but many of them didn't participate in spring football, so a lot of schools that had no reason to care about the issue had the ability to ruin it one way or the other for the ones who had a vested interest.
 
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Mr. Slippery said:
As I said earlier, many schools did not participate because they preferred to put more focus on their spring sports teams.

Spring football existed in the '30s for sure, possibly also the late '20s. The coaches' association voted to eliminate it during the middle of WWII in order to conserve scarce equipment and show support for the war effort. Spring football was reinstated after WWII until member schools finally voted in December of '55 to eliminate it beginning with the '56-'57 school year. In a nutshell, 1956 was the last spring that HS football drills were allowed in Ohio. Teams who participated would practice for about 3 weeks and play a couple games/scrimmages.

Interesting factoids from that 1955 vote:
- There were 1053 member schools. There are roughly 820 now.

- Principals voted 633 to 208 to lower the eligibility age from 20 to 19. An athlete was ineligible to compete after attaining the age of 19 with the following exceptions, the athlete could complete the fall season if he turned 19 after Sept, the athlete could complete the winter season if he turned 19 after Nov. 1, and the athlete could complete the spring season if he turned 19 after March 1. 1 editorial I saw regarding this rule change indicates it was much-needed. Pennsylvania already had this 19-year-old age limit, so juniors from PA used to move to Ohio to take advantage of Ohio's 20-year old age limit.

- Principals voted 256 to 115 to ban football practices between December 1 and August 20. If I understand things correctly from the final years of the spring football era, if you did not participate in spring football, you could begin practicing on August 20. If you participated in spring football, you could not begin practice until September 1. The main issue surrounding this vote was that all member schools could vote on this particular item, but many of them didn't participate in spring football, so a lot of schools that had no reason to care about the issue had the ability to ruin it one way or the other for the ones who had a vested interest.
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So..spring football was around when Massillon was winning "titles".
 
StateChampion2012 said:
So if they manage to start the season, there will be like 6-7 games before tournament. Better than nothing!
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If the season would start on Saturday May 9th most teams would get more than 6-7 games before May 23rd sectional games. If you read the OHSAA release they said that teams would be permitted to keep playing games once they were eliminated from the tourney as long as they could find teams. So basically players would have to decide between high school ball and travel ball.

Game One- May 9th wrap up the season June 20th - Most high schools that I know would be willing to schedule a boat load of games during that time frame. just my 2 cents
 
Iroquois said:
If the season would start on Saturday May 9th most teams would get more than 6-7 games before May 23rd sectional games. If you read the OHSAA release they said that teams would be permitted to keep playing games once they were eliminated from the tourney as long as they could find teams. So basically players would have to decide between high school ball and travel ball.

Game One- May 9th wrap up the season June 20th - Most high schools that I know would be willing to schedule a boat load of games during that time frame. just my 2 cents
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I meant before tournament play starts. I'm sure if some teams get eliminated early that they could schedule as many games as allowed after that
 
Iroquois said:
If the season would start on Saturday May 9th most teams would get more than 6-7 games before May 23rd sectional games. If you read the OHSAA release they said that teams would be permitted to keep playing games once they were eliminated from the tourney as long as they could find teams. So basically players would have to decide between high school ball and travel ball.

Game One- May 9th wrap up the season June 20th - Most high schools that I know would be willing to schedule a boat load of games during that time frame. just my 2 cents
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Pennsylvania governor just closed all schools for the balance of the school year. Ohio to follow soon.
 
Also, just an FYI....and I didn't know this until recently. My dad was in HS in the late 50's. They didn't have football and had baseball in both the fall and spring. He can't remember if the fall games counted toward the Spring record, but said they definitely played fall games. Would be tough with football, but man, early September would be great baseball weather.
 
birdog said:
Pennsylvania governor just closed all schools for the balance of the school year. Ohio to follow soon.
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I agree, I'm sure Ohio schools will be shut down for the remainder of the school year.

But it is nice to see that ohsaa does have a plan for spring Sports it gives everyone involved with spring sports a little bit of a glimmer of a hope.

I'm pretty sure Michigan and Indiana have already shut spring Sports down and closed for the remainder of the year.
 
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Iroquois said:
I agree, I'm sure Ohio schools will be down foe the remainder of the school year.

But it is nice to see that ohsaa does have a plan for spring Sports it gives everyone involved with spring sports a little bit of a glimmer of a hope.

,I'm pretty sure Michigan and Indiana have already shut spring Sports down and closed for the remainder of the year.
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They did.

It may have the same ending here in Ohio, but I'm all for hope
 
tcgobucks said:
Also, just an FYI....and I didn't know this until recently. My dad was in HS in the late 50's. They didn't have football and had baseball in both the fall and spring. He can't remember if the fall games counted toward the Spring record, but said they definitely played fall games. Would be tough with football, but man, early September would be great baseball weather.
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Not sure why they eliminated it BUT the Putnam County League once upon a time did fall baseball. On the PCL website it looks like they did fall ball from 1951-1964.
 
scbuckeye99 said:
Not sure why they eliminated it BUT the Putnam County League once upon a time did fall baseball. On the PCL website it looks like they did fall ball from 1951-1964.
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My guess OHSAA made them stop after complants from other schools they had an unfair advantage.
 
CC Track Fan said:
My guess OHSAA made them stop after complants from other schools they had an unfair advantage.
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I'll keep looking, but so far I've had no luck in tracking down any old newspaper articles reporting if and when the OHSAA eliminated fall baseball. It is something that would most likely have occurred as a result of a vote by the member schools. However, I've found evidence of fall HS baseball games taking place as late as 1969. Class A state champion from the previous spring season New Riegel fielded a team in the fall of 1969.
 
I am not feeling it. GW all but said school was canceled for the remainder of the year. Too bad for the seniors. Hopefully the summer teams will get together soon.
 
Majority of Superintendents are recommending closing school for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year. DeWine to make it official on Tuesday. OHSAA to terminate spring season no later than Wednesday.
 
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Mr. Slippery said:
I'll keep looking, but so far I've had no luck in tracking down any old newspaper articles reporting if and when the OHSAA eliminated fall baseball. It is something that would most likely have occurred as a result of a vote by the member schools. However, I've found evidence of fall HS baseball games taking place as late as 1969. Class A state champion from the previous spring season New Riegel fielded a team in the fall of 1969.
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Right. Fall baseball ended in 1969 for schools with no football. We always played our league in the fall since none of the schools had football. Last fall league was in fall of 1968. We played a few fall games in fall of 1969 but no league. Also: My opinion there is very little chance for any HS baseball this spring. It is just going to be to easy to have schools closed for rest of this school year. Hopefully, some summer baseball will happen.
 
Big surprise Superintendents don't want to deal with parents and teacher unions. It's cowardly and a dereliction of duty for any Super to want to stay closed.
 
PBrownisman said:
Big surprise Superintendents don't want to deal with parents and teacher unions. It's cowardly and a dereliction of duty for any Super to want to stay closed.
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I'd wager that the various districts' legal counselors are less than enthusiastic about the prospects of schools reopening this spring and passed on their recommendations to the supers.

birdog said:
Majority of Superintendents are recommending closing school for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year. DeWine to make it official on Tuesday. OHSAA to terminate spring season no later than Wednesday.
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The OHSAA issued this release on Friday:

OHSAA Member School Updates

To: All OHSAA Member Schools’ Superintendents, Principals and Athletic Administrators From: Jerry Snodgrass, Executive Director Good afternoon to each of you. Once again, this communication is intended to keep you in the loop with the continually changing events affecting school...
www.ohsaa.org

In short, the spring sports season will automatically be cancelled if and when the state announces that schools will not reopen this spring. I imagine the OHSAA has already been informed of what's coming down.
 
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PBrownisman said:
Big surprise Superintendents don't want to deal with parents and teacher unions. It's cowardly and a dereliction of duty for any Super to want to stay closed.
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I'd guess the health concerns outweigh trying to meet in person for what? Final Exams? It'd be a dereliction of duty to open and possibly cause a mass outbreak in uncertain times.
 
PBrownisman said:
Big surprise Superintendents don't want to deal with parents and teacher unions. It's cowardly and a dereliction of duty for any Super to want to stay closed.
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Dereliction of Duty and cowards for wanting to keep Kids and Staff safe and Healthy? Dereliction of Duty and cowardly to follow the Virus Guidelines set forth by Federal Government Virus Task Force? Your mind in quarantine sir?
 
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