Category Archives: Opinion
OHSAA: Transfer Rule Passes, Competitive Balance Fails
The OHSAA released Thursday afternoon the results of the most recent and highly anticipated referendum vote, highlighted by two main issues – a new competitive balance proposal and altered transfer rules. This marked the third consecutive year that a form of competitive balance was on the referendum, and for the third year in a row it failed, this time by the slimmest margin yet: 327-to-308 (51.5 percent to 48.5 percent). The new transfer bylaw was approved, however, by a margin of 346-to-288.
BJ Sanderson Just What the Titans Need
Less than 4 weeks after Keith Snoddy resigned as head boys basketball coach at Triway High School, the committee in charge of interviewing and choosing a candidate offered the job to its new head of the program – BJ Sanderson. BJ quickly accepted the offer, which will become official once approved at the Triway Board of Education’s Monday meeting. Sanderson will become just the 3rd different coach of the boys program since Randy Montgomery took over 30 years ago. After Montgomery’s 19 years of success, Keith Snoddy began his tenure, which lasted a good 11 years. Now it’s BJ’s turn, and he looks to return the program into a slightly different direction, and back to where he feels it belongs.
PAC Baseball Preview
You can smell it in the air and feel it in the cool breeze – it’s spring again; and that can mean only one thing: Baseball season! Last year the Principals Athletic Conference was as competitive, top-to-bottom, as any conference around, having a staggering 6 (six!) different schools with a chance to win the conference outright going into the final week of league play, with Fairless and CVCA eventually holding on for co-championships. This season looks to be very similar with several schools primed for a championship run and maybe some additional success in the tournament. The general media normally doesn’t give much coverage during the baseball season, so I thought it’d be fun to provide a rundown of the PAC and how its teams look for the 2013 season. Continue reading for a little Q&A with each coach, as well as my thoughts for each team’s 2013 campaign.
OHSAA to Allow Open Recruitment for Non-Public Schools
(Note: For those reading this after-the-fact, it was an April Fool’s joke.) In what has been quite a topsy-turvy string of events relating to the latest Competitive Balance proposals, the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) dropped a bombshell on Ohio high schools early Monday. In releasing, via Twitter, their most recent version of the 2013-’14 high school referendum, it’s been announced that the OHSAA will bypass the vote on select issues, and has chosen to adopt a new amendment to grant private schools the ability to openly recruit and host open houses solely for athletic purposes. This comes as a shock to many, with so much publicity lately around the Competitive Balance saga. But after looking into it more, the organization’s explanation is starting to make some sense.
DII Canton District Preview
Sectional and district tournament seedings took place all across Ohio on Sunday, February 10. The Division II Canton district was no different. The tournament, hosted at the Canton Memorial Fieldhouse, has a tradition of sending teams through to the state final 4 throughout the years, including St Vincent-St Mary, Triway, Northwest, and others. This year the district has a few promising teams, but it remains to be seen if this district has the top-end talent to make such a run again. With teams such SVSM, Hoban, and Canton South, all of which have been ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll, there’s no denying there will be some good teams playing at the Fieldhouse. This district definitely has the makings of an exciting group of games! It’s time for a rundown of the district, first round and potential match-ups, who to look out for, and my prediction as the district champion.
DIII Wooster District Preview
Sectional and district tournament seedings took place all across Ohio on Sunday, February 10. The Division III Wooster district was no different. The tournament, hosted at Wooster High School, is chock full of area schools just minutes away and a handful of others that will be traveling more than an hour. This provides a great mix of styles from teams coming from of a variety of conferences. With the district being made up of 14 teams from 5 different conferences, the games tend to be more unpredictable, as the teams are less familiar with each other. One thing’s been pretty consistent over the last few years, though – the Orrville Red Riders – winning the last 3 district championships. In 2013, though, the district has never been more wide open! It’s time for a rundown of the district, first round and potential match-ups, who to look out for, and my prediction as the district champion.
Rundown of Ohio State’s 2013 Recruiting Class
There was a huge buzz last season when Urban Meyer became the new sheriff in Columbus, OH, as the head coach of The Ohio State Buckeyes. Fortunately for the Scarlet & Gray, that buzz has not yet worn off. In fact, it’s only gotten stronger. After only having a short amount of time to shore up as good of class as possible last year with the late arrival of him and his coaching staff, Coach Urban Meyer still managed to round up a top-10 recruiting class for 2012, highlighted by a top-notch defensive line group. Fans hoped – and downright expected – an elite recruiting class for 2013, and the Ohio State staff delivered beyond our wildest dreams.
What if Lebron “Decided” to Come Back?
Talk is swirling around sports media right now that, after the 2013 season is complete, Lebron James could be the Cleveland Cavaliers’ top target for an off-season acquisition. This understandably has caused dramatic, mixed feelings among Cleveland sports fans, both the die-hard and the casual. While it’s still a long way off, and I, personally, think it’s a long shot, it’s something the experts have deemed a potential reality; and thus we must discuss!
Browns Hire New HC Rob Chudzinski
Last night it was announced that the Browns had chosen their new head coach – Rob “Chud” Chudzinski. My first reaction, and the reaction of many Browns fans, was “WHO!?” But after some more research into who Chud really is, and what he’s done, there seems to be a glimmer of hope that the Browns organization just might be headed in the right direction.
Should College Athletes Get Paid?
It’s an age-old topic that has become more relevant lately with the booming success of conference television networks and realignment – should the athletes playing the games that bring in so much money and notoriety to their universities get paid for their efforts? Opinions and viewpoints hit on all points of the spectrum, so I thought I would take some time and share my thoughts.
My name is Andrew Marcum. Many know me as "thePITman" from my longtime participation in online sports forums - hence the name of this site. A computer programmer & analyst in my day job, I am active in local high school sports, and very passionate about the sports world as a whole.