Fort Loramie players and coach John Rodgers celebrate a point during a Division IV regional final against New Bremen on Nov. 4 at Northmont High School’s Thunderdome. The Redskins will be in Division VII this fall, which will be the first season with expanded postseason play. New Bremen will be in Div. VI.
Luke Gronneberg | Sidney Daily News
Sidney’s Larkyn Vordemark runs as Northmont’s Myrah Peters falls during a nonconference game at Northmont on Aug. 17. The Yellow Jackets will be in Division III this fall.
Luke Gronneberg | Sidney Daily News
New divisional breakdowns for fall sports were announced on Thursday, and every Shelby County team will be in a new division.
The OHSAA announced earlier this year it is expanding postseason divisions for all team sports that previously had three or four divisions. Boys and girls soccer is expanding from three divisions to five, while volleyball is expanding from four divisions to seven.
Divisions I and II in all team sports will each have 64 schools; remaining schools will be divided evenly among the remaining divisions.
Sidney’s volleyball squad will be in Division III, and all other area teams will be in Division VI or VII.
Anna will be in Division VI; the Rockets are one of the three largest D-VI schools. Houston will also be in D-VI. Botkins, Fairlawn, Fort Loramie, Lehman Catholic, Jackson Center and Russia’s volleyball teams will be in Div. VII.
The Div. VII teams won’t have to worry about competing in the same division as New Bremen, which is in Div. VI. All were previously in Division IV, which the Cardinals have dominated.
New Bremen has won four Div. IV titles since 2017 and has advanced to state title matches six times. Its main rival has been Tiffin Calvert, which has won two state titles since 2018 and advanced to state title matches three times. Calvert is also in D-VI.
Fort Loramie is the only local squad to advance to state since 2017. The Redskins advanced in 2019, a year in which New Bremen played in the Northwest regional; the Cardinals have been in the Southwest regional most years. The Cardinals beat Fort Loramie 3-1 in the 2019 D-IV state title match.
Fort Loramie lost to the Cardinals in regional finals last year and in 2022, 2018 and 2017. Russia lost to New Bremen in a regional final in 2020.
Sidney’s girls soccer squad is in Div. III, while its boys squad is in D-II. Sidney’s base enrollment for the two-year cycle (which is the enrollment the bottom three grades at the start of the two-year cycle) is 445 for boys and 337 for girls.
The rest of the soccer teams in Shelby County are in the smallest division. Anna, Lehman Catholic and Botkins’ girls soccer teams are in Division V. Botkins, Lehman, Jackson Center and Fairlawn’s boys soccer teams are also in D-V.
The divisional assignments are based on enrollment data gathered by the Ohio Department of Education. The OHSAA uses enrollment data for a two-year cycle; the association uses the school’s enrollment of ninth, 10th and 11th graders at the start of the cycle to determine divisional placement. Competitive balance factors from a previous season are also included.
The breakdowns released on Thursday were preliminary, but few changes are expected. If a referendum up for voting by OHSAA members this month passes, a team will have the option to move up to Division I, if desired.
Reach Bryant Billing at 937-538-4818, or follow @SidneyOHSports on Twitter and @BryantBillingSDN on Facebook.
