OHSAA board approves expansion

The Indians will have less teams to fight through in future postseasons.

Thursday morning, the Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors voted unanimously to adopt a new formula to determine how many divisions would be offered for postseason tournaments in volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball for the 2024-25 season.

The change will expand volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball to seven divisions, while soccer will increase to five divisions.

For the 2023-24 athletic seasons, Fort Recovery High School’s volleyball team fell in Division III, boys basketball in Division IV, girls basketball in Division III, baseball in Division IV and softball in Division III.

The proposal calls for the largest 64 schools to be placed in Division I, the next 64 schools in Division II and for the remaining to be divided evenly among the other five divisions.

The proposed changes will not affect individual sports such as bowling, cross country, golf, swim or track. There is discussion of expanding additional sports, particularly track, but 

Any changes for competitive balance would need to be voted on during the annual referendum voting process.