Ohio Athletic Committee impacts youth sports throughout the state

The Ohio Athletic Committee is based in Sandusky, but its influence reaches all corners of Ohio. The OAC will kick off its 25th season this weekend by hosting its state youth football championships at Sports Force Parks. From there, the three-man organization will turn its attention to wrestling and cheer events. Jared Opfer, the OAC's executive director, gets asked often what his group does. "We're essentially athletic directors without a home team," Opfer said recently. "We facilitate events." The OAC operated with volunteers the first 10 years it existed. Jude Roth, who remains on staff, was one of the organization's founders. The OAC's first event was a state junior high wrestling tournament, held at Jackson Junior High in March 1999. "There was no common event where everyone from the state came together to compete for a championship," Roth said. "It was open to everyone in the state and took off from there." The OAC, which moved into its current headquarters on Fillmore Street a few years ago, is best known for holding youth wrestling tournaments. Grade school and junior high wrestlers can qualify for the state tourney, which has been held at Youngstown's Covelli Centre since 2011. About 80 events statewide are sponsored by the OAC each school year. The football championships, which welcome a few dozen teams to Sandusky on Saturday and Sunday, cover age groups 10U, 11U and 12U. This is the 14th year for the football championships. Two years ago, Ohio State coach Ryan Day was on hand to watch his son play. "I think we're doing a better job getting community teams rather than all-star teams, so it's schools that are represented," Roth said. "I think that's made a big difference and made the game more competitive." The wrestling tournaments are the OAC's showcase events. Opfer, a four-time state champion at St. Mary Central Catholic (a team he now coaches), says the youth tourneys make a huge impact on the quality of wrestling in Ohio. "Once wrestling is in your blood it's there," he said. "It's exciting seeing us have an impact on Ohio wrestling, one of the state's that's known for wrestling. We're making an impact on how good Ohio is." The OAC's first junior high state tournament featured 240 wrestlers in 15 weight classes. Now there are more than 800 wrestlers at the state events. "We had an idea it would take off, but the first one was better than expected," Roth said. "I don't think anyone anticipated getting to what it is right now, doing junior high, grade school, freshmen, girls. It's really taken off." The growing organization brought on a third employee this year when it hired Michael Baxter as director of events. Baxter, a Perkins graduate, was an assistant wrestling coach at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa. "We've all had our lives impacted by wrestling in terms of friendships, jobs, relationships, career paths, all those things," Baxter said. "Through this organization we can bolster the health of wrestling in Ohio. If we create great experiences for young kids we can keep them in this and the benefits we've seen on the back end really is the goal. "We want them to love the sport the way we do and get the impact we got out of it. It's a small community. Six degrees of separation is way too many in wrestling. You always know someone who knows someone." Baxter's presence will help because the OAC sometimes holds up to eight events per weekend. "The way we're headed it's more than Jude and I could handle," Opfer said. "If we wanted to continue to make an impact we wanted to have someone else. Having him on board, it's another guy with college connections and coaching ability. We're at tournaments coaching parents sometimes." Roth started the OAC with Ed Opfer and Mark Hiemstra. Jared Opfer joined the group in 2009 as business development director. The OAC has grown to the point where it has awarded more than $102,000 in scholarships since 2007. The organization, a 501(c)(3), has a scholarship endowment with the Erie County Community Foundation that awards $5,000 to $10,000 annually. The state wrestling tournaments in the spring are held in an area that is the same size as the last Olympic wrestling arena. The Covelli Centre can accommodate 12 of the OAC's wrestling mats. The wrestling tournaments have been proving grounds for some of Ohio's all-time greats, including David Taylor, who became a two-time world champion in September, and Monroeville native Logan Stieber, who also won a world championship. "You have kids who win multiple state titles in high school who aren't placing at the OAC because there's only one division," Baxter said. The OAC also coaches up parents, which is a help to those exposed to wrestling for the first time. "A big part of our job is to educate parents on how to work their way through a tournament at the younger ages," Baxter said. "We want them to enjoy this, have success and keep going. If we're not helping educate the parents then we're not doing our jobs."