OHSAA Softball to the Fall?

Yappi

Yappi

Go Buckeyes
Not that it has anything to do with Coronavirus but what do you think of moving softball to the Fall?

I've heard this suggested before. One suggestion has moving softball to the Fall and volleyball to the Spring. I think you could also move Tennis to the Spring to align with boys tennis.

The one negative would be the championships would be in much colder temps than playing them in June.
 
 
But one positive would be less postponed games that we have in March/early April due to muddy fields. Load up on games August and September and have October for tournament
 
I think it would be a good idea. Several states already play softball in the fall. I think if you moved the finals away from Akron and somewhere in the SW Ohio area, the finals would probably played in pretty mild temperatures. The downside is for kids who play travel ball and the NCAA recruiting periods in the fall. I know this is only a fraction of girls playing high school ball, but I think it could negatively impact some of those kids. A lot of recruiting/camps/showcase ball is done in the fall.
 
What with the ongoing Corona Virus pandemic, now is a good time to seriously consider whether it would be a good idea to switch softball to a fall sport. The chance of having any interscholastic season this spring is rapidly diminishing so sliding to a fall schedule now, if it's otherwise a good idea, might make sense. It would mean affecting the multiple sport softball athletes that play volleyball or soccer or run cross country but that might be worth it. (I guess you might consider moving volleyball from a fall to a spring sport while you're at it.)
 
I coached boys tennis for 14 years. You cannot play girls tennis the same season. It's not like basketball where you can turn on the lights and practice later.
 
chs1971 said:
I coached boys tennis for 14 years. You cannot play girls tennis the same season. It's not like basketball where you can turn on the lights and practice later.
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That thought crossed my mind. Court availability is an issue that would be rather impossible to overcome. It becomes even more impossible if you have an extremely wet season.

The other thought that crosses my mind pertains to volleyball. Spring is generally the peak of the JO season.
 
Yappi said:
Not that it has anything to do with Coronavirus but what do you think of moving softball to the Fall?

I've heard this suggested before. One suggestion has moving softball to the Fall and volleyball to the Spring. I think you could also move Tennis to the Spring to align with boys tennis.

The one negative would be the championships would be in much colder temps than playing them in June.
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This is my thought on the situation when people ask about moving the seasons for Ohio sports......

I cannot be the only one who gets excited for each season of sports that is largely based on the professional/collegiate timetable. Spring/summer = Baseball. Fall Football, winter basketball, etc etc etc.

If they would move lets say baseball, softball to the fall I just dont feel like many would have the same enthusiasm for the sport. I really dont.
 
This is a fascinating argument and one that goes more with what makes logical sense due to the weather and how it would be perceived realistically.

Logically, with the school year set up as is, it would make most sense to have baseball/ softball/ soccer/ tennis/ golf/ cross country in the fall, and football, volleyball, track and field in the spring. You could actually have soccer in the spring or fall.

Now realistically, I never see a day when you move football from the fall. It's tradition, the college and pro seasons are in the fall into winter.

The other piece from the high school standpoint that makes the spring schedule tough is the ending of school by mid/ late May. If you ever had year around school which some states do, I think you could push back the spring season about a month. baseball / softball could start mid April and get away from some of the crappy weather.
 
Red14 said:
This is a fascinating argument and one that goes more with what makes logical sense due to the weather and how it would be perceived realistically.

Logically, with the school year set up as is, it would make most sense to have baseball/ softball/ soccer/ tennis/ golf/ cross country in the fall, and football, volleyball, track and field in the spring. You could actually have soccer in the spring or fall.

Now realistically, I never see a day when you move football from the fall. It's tradition, the college and pro seasons are in the fall into winter.

The other piece from the high school standpoint that makes the spring schedule tough is the ending of school by mid/ late May. If you ever had year around school which some states do, I think you could push back the spring season about a month. baseball / softball could start mid April and get away from some of the crappy weather.
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This is what Indiana does. Many of their schools go all year around.
 
As a softball and volleyball dad I think flipping the seasons makes absolute sense from many different perspective, not just the weather implications. Frankly, I'm not sure why it hasn't happened already. I'm sure there are politics at play to some extent.
 
In order for this proposal to move softball to the fall to be actually considered, the affected coaches (coaches' association) and schools' ADs would have to champion it to the OHSAA. Without an organized majority of them pushing the idea, nothing will occur. The current pandemic opens the door a bit but I don't know if there are enough folks who would be serious in changing things.
 
One issue with moving to the fall is officials.
Softball and Baseball have a lot of games in a short period of time.
Even if you only moved softball that would put a strain on an already understaffed number of officials.
Fall football between Varsity, JV,Freshman and middle school programs takes up a lot of officials.
Most who do basketball in the winter and baseball/softball in the spring.
 
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