Huron, Margaretta boys basketball move into Division III

Two area boys basketball programs that won district championships last season will play in new divisions in 2022-23. Huron dropped down to Division III while Margaretta moved up to D-III in the OHSAA's new divisional breakdowns released Tuesday. The Tigers dropped into the middle of the pack in Division III due to smaller enrollment numbers. Huron's boys basketball adjusted enrollment is 155. "If they would've done this last year we would've been in Division III," Huron coach Bobby James said. "But that (D-III district) was a buzzsaw so it wouldn't have been an advantage." Huron won the D-II district at Ashland before falling to St. Marys Memorial in a regional semifinal. Richmond Edison, Greenon and North College Hill, with adjusted enrollments of 194, are the largest boys basketball programs in Division III. Margaretta's adjusted boys basketball enrollment is 135. The smallest schools in D-III are at 120. The Polar Bears won the Division IV district tournament at Willard before losing to eventual state champion Richmond Heights in a regional semifinal. James, whose Huron program has toggled between D-II and D-III, expects to be in Division III for years to come. "We've always been at the high end (of D-III) but now we're in the middle of the pack," he said. "I think we'll be there awhile because I don't see any big (enrollment) numbers coming through our district." The OHSAA uses enrollment data provided by the Ohio Department of Education to determine each school's base number. Figures reflect the number of students in grades 9-11 as of October 31, 2021. Competitive balance data are included to determine each school's adjusted enrollment. The OHSAA delayed revisiting its divisions a year due to the coronavirus, so the state operated under the same numbers for three seasons instead of two. Sandusky and Norwalk remained in Division II — barely. The boys basketball adjusted enrollment for both schools is 348, which is tied for Tecumseh for the most in Division II. The smallest school in Division I — Trotwood Madison — is at 349. Other area schools in Division II, with their boys enrollment figures: Clyde (275), Perkins (248), Bellevue (236) and Vermilion (228). At the other end of Division II, Port Clinton is the smallest school with 195 boys. Tiffin Columbian, which has eliminated Sandusky in district play the last two years, moved up to Division I because of a higher number of students who attend the school from outside its district boundaries. That boosted Columbian's Competitive Balance number to 18. Columbian, with an adjusted enrollment of 352, will be the sixth-smallest school in Division I. Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, last season's Division II state champion, also is moving up to Division I because of its Competitive Balance number of 84. Cincinnati Taft, which won the Division III title, is moving up to Division II due to increased enrollment. Richmond Heights will stay in Division IV and is one of the five largest schools in that classification. Division I champion Pickerington Central will stay in that division. Willard, an SBC Bay Division program, moved up from Division III to Division II. Other area schools joining Huron and Margaretta in Division III are Oak Harbor and Edison. Colonel Crawford, which defeated Western Reserve in the Division III Norwalk District finals, is moving down to Division IV. Area schools in Division IV include St. Paul, Monroeville, St. Mary Central Catholic and Danbury. SMCC and Danbury, with adjusted boys basketball enrollments of 70 and 69, respectively, are the smallest D-IV schools in the area. Fremont St. Joseph Central Catholic and Tiffin Calvert, with boys basketball enrollments 50 and 48, respectively, are the smallest schools in the Sandusky Bay Conference. The largest adjusted enrollment number in Division I is Cleveland St. Ignatius (1,436), followed by four schools in southwest Ohio: Cincinnati St. Xavier (1,388), Mason (1,300), Fairfield (1,243) and Hamilton (1,163). Also of note: Lorain, with an adjusted boys basketball enrollment of 830, is the 18th-largest school in the OHSAA. The OHSAA also released divisional breakdowns for other winter sports. No area girls basketball programs moved up or down. In wrestling, Huron and Port Clinton dropped from Division II to Division III — the smallest division in wrestling. Among the OHSAA's winter sports, only basketball utilizes competitive balance data, therefore it is reconfigured every season. Sports that do not utilize competitive balance data are reconfigured every two years.