BELLVILLE, Ohio — A smaller division doesn’t necessarily mean the road to the playoffs is any less fraught with danger.
Clear Fork and Galion, the area’s two most frequent visitors to the high school football postseason, will have a new tournament path beginning in the fall. The Colts and Tigers dropped to Division V, Region 16 from Division IV, Region 12 when the Ohio High School Athletic Association released its divisional and regional alignments last week.
The OHSAA adjusts its divisional cutoffs every two years when enrollment figures from each of its member schools are updated. Both Clear Fork and Galion have significantly smaller male student populations than during the previous two-year cycle. Clear Fork’s male enrollment figure dropped from 237 boys in grades nine through 11 in October of 2012 to 192 in October of 2014. Galion dipped from 224 to 191.
The new Division V cutoff is 200, meaning Clear Fork and Galion will be among the biggest of the 108 schools in Division V.
“Just because we dropped a division, that doesn’t mean getting to the playoffs will be easier,” veteran Clear Fork coach Dave Carroll said. “Once you get there, if you are fortunate enough to get to the second round and beyond, everyone is good no matter what division you are in.”
Clear Fork has made 12 trips to the postseason, more than any other school in the area. The Colts most recently qualified for the playoffs in 2010, the year they won the the school’s only Ohio Cardinal Conference championship. Clear Fork finished 7-3 in 2009, 2006 and 2005 — finishing no higher than third in the OCC all three seasons — and still qualified for the playoffs.
“We play against a lot of Division II and Division III teams in our conference,” Carroll said. “Seven wins has usually been enough to get us in, depending on who we beat.”
Clear Fork and Galion are two of 31 schools state-wide to move into Division V from other divisions. The Tigers have qualified for the Division IV playoffs each of the past three years and seven times overall. Galion owns the area’s lone football state championship, winning the Division II crown in 1985.
Clear Fork and Galion join a region that includes defending Division V state champ Coldwater, as well as former Division V state champs Liberty-Benton and Marion Pleasant. Genoa and Triway, both former members of Division IV, Region 12 along with Clear Fork and Galion, also dropped to Division V.
“There are a lot of great teams in the (new) region, some of them have been there for a while and some of them are coming in from other divisions,” Carroll said. “The last time we made the playoffs, we lost to Genoa in the second round. Galion played Triway in a first-round game last year and both of those teams dropped to Division V. And the defending state champ is in this region.
“It is so hard to win in the playoffs and even harder to win a state championship, no matter what division or region you are in.”
“Just because we dropped a division, that doesn’t mean getting to the playoffs will be easier,” veteran Clear Fork coach Dave Carroll said.
