Pickerington Central wins the Division I state football title for the second time in three years! Another Central Ohio public school bringing home the title over a Cincinnati/Cleveland private school; this year being Cincinnati Elder.

 

https://www.thisweeknews.com/sports/20191206/high-school-football--demeatric-crenshaw-helps-pickerington-central-take-division-i-title

https://www.13abc.com/content/news/OHSAA-votes-to-expand-football-playoffs-beginning-in-2021-570634231.html

 

OHSAA votes to expand football playoffs beginning in 2021

It looks like the OHSAA is trying to play football this fall:

 

https://www.thisweeknews.com/sports/20200721/ohio-high-school-football-coaches-association-submits-restart-proposal

https://www.thisweeknews.com/sports/20200722/ohsaa-unveils-return-to-play-guidelines-for-fall-sports

 

If the NFL (who has almost unlimited resources and can do unlimited testing) is questioning a fall season and CFB (who had vast resources and can do extensive testing) is questioning a fall season - how can Ohio high schools (with limited resources and probably very little testing) keep their players safe?

OHSAA has allowed high schools to begin football practice today (Aug. 1), but is not allowing scrimmages with other teams:

 

https://www.dispatch.com/sports/20200729/ohsaa-announces-suspension-of-scrimmages-for-fall-contact-sports

 

But although the OHSAA is allowing high schools to begin football practice, not all schools are taking them up on a fall football season.  Below is an article from Columbus Dispatch sports columnist Rob Oller about this:

 

https://www.thisweeknews.com/sports/20200731/recent-central-ohio-sports-delays-are-ominous-sign-for-high-school-fall-season

Quote

 

The damage to central Ohio high school sports from COVID-19 resembles a domino chain reaction, with suspensions tipping toward postponements and postponements possibly toppling into cancellations as the coronavirus pandemic continues on its path. 

 

On Wednesday, the first domino fell when Hilliard schools initially suspended all extracurricular activities, including sports, before backtracking Thursday by deciding sports would return to Phase 1 guidelines that limit groups to 10 or fewer.  Based on a recommendation from Franklin County Public Health, Bexley followed suit by suspending extracurriculars through August 4.  New Albany came next.  Then Westerville.  Then Worthington.

 

To be clear, suspension is not cancellation.  Discussions are ongoing.  Decisions can be reversed.  Still, a tipping point draws near.

 

Meanwhile, at a safer distance from the chain reaction chaos, most schools around the state prepare to reopen sports Saturday, the day designated by the Ohio High School Athletic Association when fall practices can begin.

 

The suspension of fall sports by area schools is not a good sign, an OHSAA spokesman agreed.  But even if every school within Franklin County opts to shut down, the show would go on.  “We hope those schools do start playing sports sometime this fall,” said Tim Stried, OHSAA director of communications.  But if not, “the OHSAA is a majority-run organization.  If the majority of schools say they want to do something, we want to do something.”

( . . . )

But does everyone want a season that badly?  An OHSAA survey sent to school superintendents, principals and athletic administrators showed 611 of 1,519 (40.2%) chose to begin all sports as planned; the other options were delay the start (31.4%), switch fall and spring seasons (17.4%) or cancel and hope to restart later in the year (10.9%).

 

Clearly, the dominoes are wobbly.  But there is no consensus on how to steady them.  A big crash seems imminent.

 

 

On 7/24/2020 at 9:04 PM, Columbo said:

It looks like the OHSAA is trying to play football this fall:

 

https://www.thisweeknews.com/sports/20200721/ohio-high-school-football-coaches-association-submits-restart-proposal

https://www.thisweeknews.com/sports/20200722/ohsaa-unveils-return-to-play-guidelines-for-fall-sports

 

If the NFL (who has almost unlimited resources and can do unlimited testing) is questioning a fall season and CFB (who had vast resources and can do extensive testing) is questioning a fall season - how can Ohio high schools (with limited resources and probably very little testing) keep their players safe?

 

Look - I know me saying this will be unpopular, so let me just preface this by saying that: a) I know Covid-19 is real and very serious, and we should respond appropriately, and b) the spread needs to be contained as best possible. 

 

Having said that, I look at two stark realities of high school football:

 

1) To a lot of middle to lower income kids across the state, it's a means to an end. It's a pathway to college that wouldn't otherwise be afforded to them. 

 

2) It's a positive, organized activity for a lot of kids who live in environments that don't often foster that. 

 

3) It's more likely that a 15-18 year old kid will end up in the hospital related to a playing injury than Covid. 

 

Now -as I noted above, I know this serious, and I realize that kids often live with parents / grandparents who are more vulnerable. I just think that it's slightly more complex than "the NFL can barely do it, so we can't." The unfortunate reality is that football is a lot more than football - especially in Ohio - to the young men involved. I don't pretend to know the answer, and perhaps the only right answer is to cancel the season. I just think the options we should exercise for extracurriculars to happen at the high school level should be exhaustive.  

Kids in the 1800s didn't have any of these kinds of structured activities but they did have The Farm.

17 hours ago, YABO713 said:

2) It's a positive, organized activity for a lot of kids who live in environments that don't often foster that.

 

It's amazing how much low-income adult men center their lives around football.  Their pee-wee and high school football careers were the only time in their entire life when they were part of something.  It's also the only time in their life they had a father figure.  These guys are 50+ years old and still in love with their pee-wee and high school coaches. 

 

It's also the only time many of them saw other parts of their city and the state. 

 

18 hours ago, YABO713 said:

Having said that, I look at two stark realities of high school football:

 

1) To a lot of middle to lower income kids across the state, it's a means to an end. It's a pathway to college that wouldn't otherwise be afforded to them. 

What a sad commentary about our state and country. College and other post secondary education options need to be affordable for all who want to pursue them. Period. 

 

3 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

It's amazing how much low-income adult men center their lives around football.  Their pee-wee and high school football careers were the only time in their entire life when they were part of something.  It's also the only time in their life they had a father figure.  These guys are 50+ years old and still in love with their pee-wee and high school coaches. 

 

It's also the only time many of them saw other parts of their city and the state. 

 

^Add to that that they used to be in awesome shape and resent the guys at their workplace who run, bike, or still lift weights. 

 

I still contend that a lot of the animosity toward Obama was because he was thin.  If he had been a jolly old elf people would have trusted him more. 

I grew up in a household with two loving parents, and I still have coaches who’ve formed part of my core as a person. There are many levels to sports, especially amateur sports, that so often goes unsung

Whether or not OHSAA allows a fall football season and whether or not high schools go ahead with or suspend extracurricular activities like football might end up becoming a moot point:

 

Ohio high school contact sports unlikely to be played under current state health order

 

Despite fears about the spread of COVID-19, the Ohio High School Athletic Association has made it clear that plans remain in place to resume high school sports this fall.  In a lengthy email to school administrators that included several scenarios, the OHSAA gave the OK for teams to begin practicing this past Saturday.

 

But there remains a major hurdle to clear for contact sports to kick off their seasons later this month: a standing order by the Ohio Department of Health that would make competition in those sports virtually impossible. ... Most notably, the order forbids teams in contact sports to hold scrimmages or contests against other teams without each team member proving that he or she has passed a coronavirus test within 72 hours of that competition.

 

Football, boys and girls soccer and field hockey fall under the category of contact sports currently limited to practices and intrasquad scrimmages. ... In his order this past weekend, Ohio Department of Health Interim Director Lance D. Himes stated that if games for contact sports do go forward, they must follow a detailed protocol.

 

OHSAA spokesman Tim Stried estimated that at least 40 schools statewide have either canceled or suspended fall sports, based on the recommendation of local health officials.

 

MORE:  https://www.thisweeknews.com/sports/20200804/ohio-high-school-contact-sports-unlikely-to-be-played-under-current-state-health-order

It looks like there will be an Ohio high school football season in fall 2020.  At least they're gonna give it the ol' college, er, high school try:

 

OHSAA shortens football season to six games; all teams will advance to playoffs

 

The Ohio High School Athletic Association sent school administrators a plan Friday for a six-game football season, with all teams qualifying for the playoffs.  Gov. Mike DeWine indicated earlier in the day that he will make a determination about high school, college and professional sports next week.  That will include how many, if any, fans will be allowed to attend games.

 

A release issued by the OHSAA said the football plan, approved 9-0 by a vote of its board of directors, was made after a recommendation from DeWine’s office to shorten the season because of concerns that COVID-19 might spike in early winter.

 

Under the OHSAA plan, the season would open as scheduled the week of Aug. 24 (Aug. 28 for most teams) and conclude Oct. 2.  The playoffs would begin Oct. 9 and would conclude with the championship games in Canton on Nov. 19 to 21.

 

Computer ratings would be scrapped and divisional tournament seeding would be determined the week of Sept. 28 in a vote of coaches.  Therefore, the number of games each team plays would not be a factor.

 

Teams would be granted the opportunity to opt out of the playoffs.  The OHSAA would determine new playoff regions after taking into consideration teams that opt out of participating.

 

The release stated that schools may retain any of their previous scheduled games or void them, since most conferences likely will be forced to redo their schedules to fit into the six-game window.

 

MORE:  https://www.dispatch.com/sports/20200807/ohsaa-shortens-football-season-to-six-games-all-teams-will-advance-to-playoffs

https://www.thisweeknews.com/news/20200813/covid-19-columbus-city-schools-suspends-sports-extracurricular-activities

 

"As the fate of high school sports statewide remained up in the air, Columbus City Schools on Thursday suspended extracurricular activities, including athletics, to help corral the spread of COVID-19."

DeWine letting schools make the call on high school sports

 

Some college football seasons may be canceled or delayed, but high school sports won’t be­ – at least not on a statewide basis.

 

Gov. Mike DeWine in a Tuesday press conference said the state will allow fall sports to be played under specific guidelines to be announced in the coming days, including limiting spectators to parents or individuals close to the athletes.

 

The state is allowing local schools and communities to make the call as they see fit based on local information, such as the degree of community spread in the area.  At this point, schools are free to forge ahead, cancel or delay.

 

MORE:  https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/08/18/dewine-letting-schools-make-the-call-on-high-schoo.html

dewine went from clear covid leadership to abject political patsy.

My alma mater won't be able to play more than 5 games this year, with about half of their opponents being from out of state. I don't see them playing as of right now. 

it's ridiculous to play for many reasons.

 

it's a lost season for sports.

 

maybe track and baseball in the spring can work, we will see.

Bishop Sycamore of Columbus was featured live on ESPN yesterday, going up against IMG Academy out of Florida (a sports focused boarding school). ESPN doesn't broadcast a lot of high school football games, and the spots they air are typically reserved for the top teams in the country. IMG is among them, however Bishop Sycamore appears to be an online-only charter school that has only existed for two years. They went 0-6 last year and were outscored 227-42. Further, they had just played a game on Friday night in Pennsylvania, meaning they traveled and only had a days rest between games.

 

It was a 58-0 blowout, which was generous on the part of IMG, who took their foot off the gas in the first half. ESPN's announcers claimed they were scammed into covering the game. Critics say it was just laziness on the part of ESPN, who didn't do any research whatsoever on the team.

 

Here's how ESPN got duped into airing a terrible high school football team

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/08/espn-img-academy-bishop-sycamore-high-school-football

 

 

You mean to tell me a charter school lied?

It will be interesting to see how they handle disease-related cancellations this year.

Maple Heights has already missed one game as Uniontown Lake had an outbreak and cancelled this past weekend's games.

4 hours ago, GCrites80s said:

You mean to tell me a charter school lied?

 

It doesn't seem like they really lied, aside from the coach fibbing a bit about his kids' collegiate career prospects, but what coach doesn't talk up his team before a big game?

 

What's really sad is how quick the media is to blame the kids and the team instead of ESPN. ESPN was ridiculously lazy. 30 seconds on Google would have told you that this game had zero chance of being competitive and probably shouldn't be broadcast live, nationally, on ESPN's main channel.  ESPN also keeps a database of any and all high school kids who are contacted by colleges. They didn't even check the teams roster against their own data.

The more that's coming out about this "Bishop Sycamore" team, the crazier it gets.  Below is what could be verified for mainstream newspaper publication:

 

https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/high-school/football/2021/08/30/bishop-sycamore-high-school-football-game-espn-raises-questions-columbus-ohio-img/5649518001/

 

-- It isn't clear if Bishop Sycamore is a school at all for the 2021-22 school year.  The Ohio Department of Education lists no charter school by that name, but last year the department listed Bishop Sycamore as a "non-chartered, non-tax supported school," a type of school that "because of truly held religious beliefs, choose to not be chartered by the State Board of Education."

 

-- Each non-chartered, non-tax supported school must certify in a report to parents at the start of each school year that it meets the Ohio school operating standards in a report that must be filed with the Ohio Department of Education.  It was unclear if Bishop Sycamore filed that report. 

 

-- Non-chartered, non-tax supported schools must report their students' participation and attendance to their local school district treasurer, which for Bishop Sycamore the state lists as Columbus City Schools.  Columbus City Schools said the district has no record that Bishop Sycamore submitted any reports to it.

 

-- The state lists Bishop Sycamore's mailing address as a post office box, and its "physical address" as 3599 Chiller Lane in Columbus, the address of Resolute Athletic Complex, an indoor sports facility near Easton Town Center.  An official there said a football team-sized group of about 30 kids work out in the complex's weight room and turf fields about once a month, but no school classes have ever been located at the site.

 

-- In addition to the questions about the academic legitimacy of Bishop Sycamore's program, the football aspect doesn't appear much stronger.  Bishop Sycamore began to play in its current form in 2019 and hasn't won a game since that first season, when it went 4-5.  Since 2020, Bishop Sycamore has gone 0-9 and been outscored 342-49.

 

-- Bishop Sycamore is not a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

 

Here was the "Bishop Sycamore" 2020 schedule from MaxPreps:

Here is the "Bishop Sycamore" 2021 schedule from MaxPreps - which doesn't even include a 8/27 game against something called "Sto-Rox" - who they lost to 19-7 on the Friday night before the now-infamous Sunday afternoon ESPN game against IMG:

 

Although you can scratch DeMatha from their 2021 schedule - they cancelled their game with "Bishop Sycamore" after the ESPN game fallout(!)

 

And then there's the crazier internet stuff like:

and

Kentucky's Johnson Central game against "Bishop Sycamore" has been cancelled and they're looking for a new opponent:

I hear this school is available:

Scratch Texas' Duncanville from the "Bishop Sycamore" schedule too:

 

Although there's a lot of humor to be mined from this "Bishop Sycamore" team - there's also a lot of lying and harm to high school students that's emerging from this as well:

• https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/high-school/football/2021/09/01/bishop-sycamore-high-school-football-team-controversy-continues/5665000001/
• https://www.complex.com/sports/bishop-sycamore-high-school-player-interview/
• https://www.complex.com/sports/bishop-sycamore-interviews-roy-johnson/

 

"Bishop Sycamore's" co-founders, Andre Peterson - the athletic director and coach of the offensive and defensive line and Roy Johnson, the team's head coach are at the center of this current "Bishop Sycamore" scandal and also a 2018 team they formed called "Christians of Faith Academy".

 

The COF Academy played one season in 2018.  Below is their schedule and an expose written by the Dispatch-owned ThisWeekNews in 2019:

 

https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190226/coming-next-week-tangled-tale-of-cof-academy

 

 

In the first Dispatch article, they interviewed Akron Archbishop Hoban's athletic director, who scheduled "Bishop Sycamore" for the first time as their opening game.  He said everything seemed ok when they scheduled the game over the summer, but in the week run-up to the game things seems very odd - like not having rosters and not having who was actually playing.  The ESPN announcers noticed these same things only one quarter into last Sunday's game.

 

Which brings up a question to some very prominent schools like St. Ignatus, St. Edward and the IMG Academy.  How can you schedule the COF Academy in 2018 and then "Bishop Sycamore" in 2020 and 2021 run by these same individuals, and not notice these irregularities?

Co-founders Andre Peterson and Roy Johnson stated goal for "COF Academy" and "Bishop Sycamore" was to create an IMG Academy type of football program and "get noticed".

 

Congratulations, you're getting noticed:

 

Where were they practicing and playing their home games?

6 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

Where were they practicing and playing their home games?

 

They had no home games.

 

As for practicing, the indoor training center near Easton said they rented time for "a few times a month" and former players have said they sometimes held practice on an empty field next to the apartments that "Bishop Sycamore" got for them.  And that's just when they did practice.  Former players said there were some games they just showed up to, without practicing(!)

The games in red on the poster imply that they did have four home games in 2018. But maybe they were "home" games that took place somewhere out of town?

Still more fallout from Sunday's "Bishop Sycamore" game in Canton:

 

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2021/09/01/bishop-sycamore-football-team-accused-stiffing-canton-hotel-espn-fairfield-marriott-geico/5681745001/

 

"Canton Police Lt. Dennis Garren confirmed Wednesday that hotel management reported the (Bishop Sycamore) team stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Canton South, 4025 Greentree Ave. SW, on Friday and Saturday, renting 25 rooms."

 

"According to police reports, the hotel reported two invalid checks totaling $3,596.  Garren said they were written on an account listed to Education Resources Group of New York, New York."

Oh, this is good stuff LOL!

Usually when somebody is up to no good, there's a pretty obvious motivation. But I have no idea what these guys were up to. If they were really trying to build a good football team for these kids - why not practice? Why go through all this trouble, break laws, bounce checks, etc. just to get trounced on the football field? Unless it's a front for something else it just doesn't add up.

No surprise here.  All eight of Bishop Sycamore's remaining opponents have now canceled their games with the team for the 2021 season:

 

https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/2021/09/02/bishop-sycamore-games-opponents-cancel-centurions/5702485001/

Painesville & OSU football star John Mummey dies at 80. He came back to his old school for a while and was my homeroom teacher when I was a freshman. Don't think he was really thrilled to be back there at the time 🤢 . Was screwed out of the opportunity to play in the Rose Bowl.

 

 

 

lorain wins the national championship in football … for 8-9 year olds:

 

https://www.morningjournal.com/2021/12/22/lorain-youth-football-steelmen-team-wins-national-championship/

As a St. Ignatius football alum, I'll be heading to see Coach Kyle's last regular season game today. 

 

For some reason, they chose to have the game at Ignatius which, from my understanding, is the only varsity game played at the school in at least 50 years - maybe ever. However, they have about 10 sets of risers up around the track. 

 

It's one of those instances where, now that I'm older, I can reflect on exactly what having a coach like him meant to me. To this day, he's the reason why I think people who blame referees for a loss - any loss - have loser mindsets and are incapable of self reflection. He's the reason why I don't believe in setting moderate, almost certainly achievable, goals - as he used to say "your goals should be such that the journey to get there terrifies you." We won a state championship my senior year, and before the game he asked us "How many of you woke up nervous this morning?" and when we all nodded, he said "Good - it means you're here, and you know that you owe this moment to the 11 year old you, he dreamed of this night as he played in the front yard. It means you recognize how far you've come. It means that your goals were big enough."

 

He pushed me to levels that I didn't know I had within me, and his belief in his players most basically as human beings, and then as athletes, made it so much easier to get to that place. I was fortunate enough to have two loving, generous, caring, and attentive parents - but if I didn't I could've supplemented a lot about what I now know about life from that 100yard patch of turf at 28th and Lorain. 

 

Most importantly, he was a teacher first, and I have a funny story to reflect that. 

 

I enrolled in Coach Kyle's "English Literature & Chaucer" course during Spring semester of my junior year. Going into the class, I thought it was going to be a breeze, because I had my coach for a teacher. I was a pretty good student, and asked early on in the semester if he'd be willing to recommend me for AP English for my senior year - he told me he'd think about it. About a week later, we got our first test back, which I was way too lax about, but thought I could coast through it. 

 

I receive a marked up test back, with a 77% at the top, good enough for a C- on Ignatius' grading scale. It was also accompanied by a note, which I remember word for word until this day: "And you want me to recommend you for AP English!? Ha!" From that point on I read every word and completed every assignment, finishing with a good grade. But it was an important lesson to me - if you care about someone's development, you should hold them to a higher standard, not a lower one. 

 

I hate to rehash old times on here. But I thought it appropriate to share some of this with my UO family. 

On 10/21/2022 at 8:38 AM, YABO713 said:

As a St. Ignatius football alum, I'll be heading to see Coach Kyle's last regular season game today. 

 

For some reason, they chose to have the game at Ignatius which, from my understanding, is the only varsity game played at the school in at least 50 years - maybe ever. However, they have about 10 sets of risers up around the track. 

 

It's one of those instances where, now that I'm older, I can reflect on exactly what having a coach like him meant to me. To this day, he's the reason why I think people who blame referees for a loss - any loss - have loser mindsets and are incapable of self reflection. He's the reason why I don't believe in setting moderate, almost certainly achievable, goals - as he used to say "your goals should be such that the journey to get there terrifies you." We won a state championship my senior year, and before the game he asked us "How many of you woke up nervous this morning?" and when we all nodded, he said "Good - it means you're here, and you know that you owe this moment to the 11 year old you, he dreamed of this night as he played in the front yard. It means you recognize how far you've come. It means that your goals were big enough."

 

He pushed me to levels that I didn't know I had within me, and his belief in his players most basically as human beings, and then as athletes, made it so much easier to get to that place. I was fortunate enough to have two loving, generous, caring, and attentive parents - but if I didn't I could've supplemented a lot about what I now know about life from that 100yard patch of turf at 28th and Lorain. 

 

Most importantly, he was a teacher first, and I have a funny story to reflect that. 

 

I enrolled in Coach Kyle's "English Literature & Chaucer" course during Spring semester of my junior year. Going into the class, I thought it was going to be a breeze, because I had my coach for a teacher. I was a pretty good student, and asked early on in the semester if he'd be willing to recommend me for AP English for my senior year - he told me he'd think about it. About a week later, we got our first test back, which I was way too lax about, but thought I could coast through it. 

 

I receive a marked up test back, with a 77% at the top, good enough for a C- on Ignatius' grading scale. It was also accompanied by a note, which I remember word for word until this day: "And you want me to recommend you for AP English!? Ha!" From that point on I read every word and completed every assignment, finishing with a good grade. But it was an important lesson to me - if you care about someone's development, you should hold them to a higher standard, not a lower one. 

 

I hate to rehash old times on here. But I thought it appropriate to share some of this with my UO family. 

 

Great testimonial to the man.   My brother went there for two years, I've always been partial to the school especially against Ed's.

 

Coaches make a difference.   Period.   The history of my football alma mater, Maple Heights, makes that clear.   Two straight 0-10 seasons in 2000 and 2001, two straight state finals culminating with a championship in 2010.

Glenville High School won the State Championship!

On 12/3/2022 at 11:34 PM, Mov2Ohio said:

Glenville High School won the State Championship!

 

First Cleveland public school and only the fourth Cuyahoga County public school to win one.    None have won two.

 

 

I really hope there's a parade or some celebration - these kids (and coach) deserve it! 

On 12/5/2022 at 2:49 PM, GISguy said:

I really hope there's a parade or some celebration - these kids (and coach) deserve it! 

 

Of course there is:

https://mayor.clevelandohio.gov/thursday-glenville-tarblooder-day-cleveland

Not taking anything away from Glenville winning where they were placed, but does anyone know how they ended up in DIV when other city schools played in DII or DIII?
 

2022 John Adams Football (4-5)
Coach: Gary Jackson

8/19ALutheran East (4-6)[IV:13]L14-38

8/26HBrooklyn (3-7)[VI:21]L0-22

9/2ARhodes (4-5)[II:5]L0-24

9/9HLincoln West (3-5)[III:10]L18-26

9/16AJohn Hay (7-4)[II:5]L6-48

9/23AJohn F Kennedy (3-7)[III:9]W26-22

9/30HEast Technical (0-5)[III:9]W36-12

10/14AGlenville (15-0)[IV:14]C*cancel

10/21HCollinwood (1-7)[III:9]W28-8

10/27NJohn F Kennedy (3-7)[III:9]W*30-22

* - game does not count in OHSAA rankings