Huron volleyball in Division V in OHSAA's new alignment

Huron volleyball will play in Division V this fall under a new statewide alignment announced Tuesday by the OHSAA. Volleyball will expand from four to seven divisions this year while boys soccer and girls soccer will expand from three to five divisions. The new plan was approved by the Ohio High School Athletic Association's board of directors last week. Huron, a perennial power in Division III under volleyball's four-class setup, will be joined in D-V by area schools Edison and Port Clinton. "For us in Division V, it's essentially the same as Division III was," Huron coach Don Wood said. "You still have the same big dogs, for the most part, floating around the state. It's still the same old monster." Huron won all five its state championships in Division III, the last coming in 2020. In volleyball and soccer, the largest 64 schools will make up Division I and the next 64 will be in Division II, mirroring the new alignment in football. The rest of the state's schools are evenly divided in remaining divisions. "That Division I in the old system was a pretty wide range of schools so I understand that viewpoint," Wood said. "The rest of us fall in line where we were before with a different number." Other schools of note in Division V include 2023 D-III state champion Lake Catholic, Galion and Ottawa-Glandorf. Perenniall powerhouses St. Henry, which defeated Huron in a regional final last year, and Coldwater now are in Division VI. "Our district is still tough," Wood said. "A lot of the usual suspects, minus Margaretta, which always seems to be in the mix." Two area schools — Sandusky and Norwalk — will play volleyball in Division III. Gilmour Academy, last year's D-II runner-up, is now the smallest program in D-III. Padua Franciscan and Toledo Central Catholic also are in D-III. Division II now includes private school powers St. Joseph Academy, Magnificat and Cincinnati St. Ursula. Bellevue, Clyde, Perkins and Vermilion are the four area schools in Division IV. Cincinnati McNicholas, the year's D-III runner-up, also is in D-IV. Margaretta and Monroeville are now in Division VI while Danbury, St. Paul and St. Mary Central Catholic are in Division VII. SMCC is the eighth-smallest volleyball school in the state with an enrollment count of 40 girls last fall. New Bremen defeated Calvert in last year's D-VII state championship match. In girls soccer, Sandusky, Perkins, Norwalk and Clyde will compete in Division III. The Pirates are the smallest girls soccer school in D-III with an adjusted enrollment of 239, which includes a competitive balance number of 21. That CP number pushed Perkins up from D-IV. Vermilion, Edison and Port Clinton will be in Division IV in girls soccer, with Edison and PC among the smallest schools in the division. Huron will be one of the largest girls soccer schools in Division V, the sport's smallest division. In boys soccer, Sandusky, Norwalk and Perkins are in Division III. Clyde, Vermilion, Port Clinton, Edison are in Division IV. Huron is in D-V. Most of the area's smaller schools do not field soccer teams. Cross country (three divisions), boys and girls golf (two) and girls tennis (two) did not add any divisions. The OHSAA is basing its updated divisions off of enrollment data received this spring from the Ohio Department of Education. Enrollment numbers reflect the number of students in grades 9-11 in October 2023. The data will be used for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years. Football, volleyball and soccer also use competitive balance data, which could move schools up or down a division based on how many students live in different school districts.