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In a time where college conferences are changing by the minute, it appears high school conferences are starting to follow in the same pattern. Even though the Scioto Valley Conference has been able to hold its current form for several decades now, just about every surrounding conference has changed and is still looking to change. Recently, the topic of change has started to gain some momentum in the SVC as well, so the simple question to fans, coaches, and administrations becomes: Is this a good idea for the SVC?

My answer in this debate – if looking at it through the eyes of the conference as a whole – is absolutely not. This is something I have looked at in detail for a few years now, and my feeling is that the SVC does have some possible concerns moving forward; however, I believe these issues are and will be minor compared to the problems that could come with expansion or dismantling of our great league.

The Scioto Valley Conference has so many characteristics that other conferences are missing. The geography makes complete sense. I grew up in the SVC thinking Piketon to Westfall was a long drive, when in fact that 50 mile trip is considered the norm – and in some cases short – for some leagues. This allows for great crowds, great gates, and natural rivalries in multiple sports.

I also believe the SVC has had great competitive balance. In boys’ basketball, we have had six different champions (Piketon did share a second in this span) in the last six years. On the girls’ side, seven different schools have won a title in the last 15 years. In that same time frame, seven different football programs have won a league title as well.

There has also been more than enough tournament success from a variety of schools. Adena and Westfall volleyball, Paint Valley and Westfall football, six different basketball teams have been to the state in the past two decades, softball teams such as Piketon have been to the state, the baseball league’s resume speaks for itself, and too many individuals to mention in sports such as cross country, golf, and track have had great success as well.

Now, I realize the other side of this argument is concerned with the enrollment discrepancy over the past four or five years. There is a concern that some of the smaller schools are having trouble keeping up in all sports. My response to this comes from a few different angles and then leads to one of my major points in this discussion. First, I think we as a conference have to be careful to make rash decisions based on six or seven years of data (keep in mind the SVC just turned 50 this year). Secondly, leagues our size with our close geography can often go through spurts where families move from one district to another. This can really influence our league’s athletic balance for four or five years in a major way. This can be extremely difficult for the small schools to overcome.

This leads me to perhaps my most passionate comment on this topic. If I am looking at this debate through the eyes of the SVC, it is not the league’s job to become consumed with the well-being of every school. It is the league’s job to run a successful league. If at some point an individual school decides they are too big or too small for the league, then it is the job of that school to do what they think is best for their kids. At that point, the league would have to take a look at adding a missing piece.

This topic, which had started to gain momentum a few years ago, has recently gained even more momentum because of the interest that Waverly High School has shown in the league. Objectively, I do think Waverly fits in our geography boundaries, and the Tigers do have an enrollment, that although bigger than most SVC schools, does fit inside our extremes. The problem with adding a team – be it Waverly or any other solid school – is it pushes our league to nine schools which starts to influence scheduling in a major way, and it probably forces the league to eventually expand to 10 teams.

This immediately starts the discussion of divisions. I say be careful what you wish for in this matter. First, you are going to have trouble finding a local small school that plays football. Secondly, once you split into two divisions, a league really is no longer a league. I have asked several people here recently from split leagues their opinions, and their responses support this. Ask someone from Alexander (TVC Ohio) if Racine Southern (TVC Hocking) is in their conference and the Alexander person will tell you not really. Ask someone from Portsmouth Clay (SOC I) if they view Wheelersburg (SOC II) as a part of their conference and they will tell you no. My point is that a conference that splits is really gong to lose its identity and over time will continue to operate as two different conferences regardless of the name of that league.

A final point in this debate is I feel it is important for our league to watch and study what is going on around us. Schools are scrambling to find a conference and as a result some conferences are getting ruined and others are trying to become so big that they can’t even figure out enough names for all their divisions. I just feel the SVC needs to continue as is and allow the next decade to see what happens with the enrollment figures. As stated before, if an individual school decides something that forces change, then I would be all for taking a look at another school such as Waverly; however, if the eight schools are willing to stay linked together as one then why fix something that isn’t broke.

*OHSAA.ORG…
SCHOOL BOYS GIRLS
Adena 155 153
Huntington 153 138
Paint Valley 132 123
Piketon 179 192
Southeastern 149 144
Unioto 241 249
Westfall 185 207
Zane Trace 191 200
Waverly 235 226

By Shayne Combs, SVCsportszone.com

In all sports, in all areas, in all age groups, you see certain final scores that jump out at you as lopsided. Possibly more lopsided than needed? Well, that is for each person to decide for themselves. This is not a topic that has a set list of rules that tell us exactly when someone is running up the score, and when someone is not doing it. Often times, it can be true that a coach who won by 50 did more to not run up the score than a coach who only won by 20.

It is always interesting for me as an objective observer of so many SVC games to see how there are always two sides of the story. Let’s say you have a Friday night football game that is getting out of hand. As the game gets deep into the fourth quarter, the coach who is ahead wants to get his third-string, senior running back some carries, because he has given the program so much effort over the past four seasons. The senior runs hard on the drive and eventually runs a seemingly meaningless touchdown to stretch the lead on the scoreboard from 28 to 35. Is this running up the score? The team winning probably looks at it as no, because they are excited for the senior who never gets to play. The team getting beat probably says yes, because they want to know why a senior is still out there running the ball in a blowout game.

This is why I say it is perspective. I believe that most people become too consumed with the final score. If both teams choose to put their subs in the game, why not let them play? If I am a junior varsity tailback getting a chance to carry the pigskin on Friday night, I definitely want to do that. The same is true on the other side of the ball. If I am a young linebacker, I want a chance to make a play. I don’t want the offense taking a knee just because it is a blowout.

The other interesting perspective is how this changes sport to sport. The biggest debates in this topic are going to come in the timed sports. I noticed an area volleyball score recently that was 25-1 in a particular set. This isn’t looked at as running up the score, because the rules say the team must score 25 points to win the set. Baseball and softball is another interesting topic, because it has no number to play to nor does it have a clock.

It is also interesting to look at the responsibility of the coach getting beat instead of always putting the scrutiny on the coach who is ahead. For example, in basketball let’s say I am getting beat by 25 in the fourth quarter. If I make the decision to keep pressing all over the court (which is completely fine and does in a way teach kids to keep competing to the end), I must be aware that the other team is going to attack my pressure and continue to score. I can’t expect to keep trapping on every pass and expect them to just stop playing.

This same analogy is true with football. If I am winning, and I try to call off the dogs I believe it is important for both sides to adjust their play calling. The losing coach can’t continue to have his linebacker blitzing the “A” gap and expect my quarterback to not try and make a play.

I know in baseball it often times is my fault if my team gets beat by 20 runs instead of seven or eight runs. At a small school, I must use my pitching staff in the best way possible. I know last year, I was in a game where we were competing with a team that was much better than us. Unfortunately for us, the game started to get away in the fifth inning as we went down 13-4 after only trailing 6-4. At that point, I realized with the pitching staff we were facing that we could not win that game. I knew in the back of my mind we had winnable games coming up on the next two nights. I had to throw a kid out there to “eat” the next couple of innings and as a result we ended up giving up 22 runs. The final score to some probably looked bad, but I knew that it was more my fault than any coach trying to run up the score. I simply explained to my kids after the game why I did what I did, and we were able to be successful later in the week because we saved our best pitchers. We could have easily kept the score down around 13-4, but I did not think that was the best thing for my team at the time. Again, instead of getting consumed with the final score, I think it is always important to have perspective.

I think that coaches can sometimes try so hard to do what they think is right that they do things that could be viewed as embarrassing to the other team. For example, is a football coach going to tell a kid to fall down before the goal line to avoid scoring? Is a softball coach going to have players purposely get picked off or leave the base early to make outs on purpose. There are also some strategies that are somewhat unfair to your own kids. Is a baseball coach going to ask a kid to strikeout on purpose and hurt his own batting average? Is a volleyball coach going to ask a player to purposely miss a serve or hit a kill attempt out-of-bounds?

This is why I feel the best situations that I have seen are when both coaches have an understanding of the situation. They both allow their kids to continue playing hard, but they simply adjust some strategies that make the game finish in a way that is not disrespectful to either side.

All sports have “unwritten” rules that coaches become familiar with over time. Some decide to follow them, and some simply ignore them. I have been beaten by 74 in basketball, and I have won by more than 50 in basketball. I have been beaten by more than 20 in baseball, and I have won by more than 20 in baseball. On all occasions, the circumstances are different. I believe this is why this debate must be viewed as a case-by-case discussion, and even then, it truly is a personal perspective.

*NOTE: Let me hear your thoughts! Email the website at admin1@svcsportszone.com or comment on our blog section of the website. We will be talking about this topic on our upcoming podcast show. We will use some of our best comments and/or questions from our inbox and our blog.

As many of you know, we have a new podcast feature on our website. Our podcast show is called SVC Sports Talk. In our upcoming show (to be released to the website late Monday night), we will recap all the fall sports from the past week; however, the big focus this week will be on football. We are taking a closer look at all the versions of the spread or hurry-up offenses around the league, and we are analyzing how this hurts defenses – not just your opponent but perhaps you own defense.

I have talked to several coaches around the area including defensive coordinators, and we have several key points to talk about on our show. Topics include kids playing both ways, practice time, match-ups, and pace of the game. As always, we will breakdown the four SVC games this week, and finish the show with our own hurry-up offense in our Two-Minute Drill segment.

By Shayne Combs

When it comes to the fall season, just about every night is a busy night. With five sports – three of which having both boys and girls, the SVC is always going to have several things to read about on a daily basis; however, Thursday is going to have a little extra to offer.

Starting bright and early at the beautiful Foxfire Golf Club, the SVC golfers will play 18 holes with the front nine counting as SVC Match #7 and the back nine counting as SVC Match #8. In the team standings, Unioto has pretty much wrapped up another SVC title, but Southeastern, Adena, and the rest of the league will have two more opportunities to prohibit the Shermans from winning the Golden Golf Ball – an award given for a perfect SVC season.

There is also a tight race for the middle of the pack spots. Zane Trace currently sits in fourth place with 26 points, and Westfall and Piketon follows with 23 and 22 points respectively.

Finally, perhaps the most excited race at Foxfire Thursday is the race for Player of the Year. Unioto’s Colton Forcum is currently sitting at 36.6 (183 total strokes) with Ben Davis of Southeastern sitting just three total strokes back with an average of 37.2 (186 total strokes). Keep in mind with players dropping their worst score, Forcum still has a 40 in his back pocket and Davis has a 42. To make this clear, this means Forcum could shoot a 50 on one of his nine holes (although I would say Coach Drummond and his Unioto teammates would prefer that he didn’t) and it would actually get replaced with his current high score of 40 in his individual average. This always seems to play a role in the final day of the POY race. One final point to make at the top of the individual standings would be Josh Cushing of Unioto who is six strokes back (189 total strokes) of his teammate Forcum. He would obviously need some help from Forcum and Davis, but a round in the 70s would give him a shot for the great comeback.

At the bottom of the standings, it is going to be a great finish for the battle of the last couple of all-league spots. It appears we have 17 kids fighting for 15 spots. The difference at the bottom is that few kids have solid scores to drop. There will be a little more pressure on these kids to take on the tough test of Foxfire and post two good scores.

Make sure to checkout the website for all the scores late Thursday night. Also, look for the final (unofficial) individual standings sometime Friday morning.

Moving on to Thursday night, the Adena volleyball team will host Westfall. This match starts the second round, and if Westfall and/or Huntington are going to have any chance of staying in the race, the Mustangs are going to have to stop a pair of Adena streaks that include 91 straight SVC wins as well as 137 straight wins at home.

The volleyball schedule also includes a key Unioto at Southeastern match-up. A Southeastern win accompanied by a Zane Trace win over Piketon, and our SVC standings could show a three-way tie with Unioto, ZT, and Southeastern at 4-4 in fourth place.

A busy Thursday that starts on the golf course and finishes on the volleyball court will be completely recapped on the website. Make sure to check it out!

As Matt described so well on our first week of SVC Sports Talk, each school has some different philosophies on non-league scheduling. This can sometimes give fans a mix message in terms of who is good and who is not as good as their record might suggest.

I have always said there is no substitute for evaluating who is better than having two teams play head-to-head. I think we learned this past week that we have some offenses that have the capabilities of putting up some big numbers. We also have some defenses very capable of playing well. We have a couple match-ups coming this week that will really go a long way in telling us who is truly a contender.

By Shayne Combs, SVCsportszone.com

Just five matches into a 14 night schedule, and the word momentum is proving to be one hard thing for teams to keep in their corner. Each school has borrowed this elusive trait at some point, but the teams – especially those in the battle for the second-place spot in the standings – are having trouble stringing consistent performances together.

See if you can follow this: Unioto beat Zane Trace…Southeastern beat Zane Trace…Huntington beat Unioto…Zane Trace beat Huntington…Westfall played like a team possessed in a dominating win at Zane Trace, but since has needed five sets to beat Southeastern and Unioto.

To Westfall’s credit, the Lady Mustangs have survived with just the loss to Adena to this point, but Westfall still has a first-round match at Huntington on Tuesday when the league plays the preview match-ups to complete the first round of conference play. This is part of a brutal week that includes a trip to Frankfort just two nights later.

Can anyone make sense of all this? Probably not completely, but in many ways it makes complete sense. This is just a matter of SVC volleyball once again being one of the elite volleyball conferences in southeast Ohio. I have always said in my volleyball articles that I feel it is tough to upset a team in a best-of-five format; however, when two solid volleyball teams play in a rally scoring format, it just doesn’t take much for a match to swing one way or the other.

The past 10 days, I have watched three SVC volleyball matches that were decided in four games. In all cases, the two teams were even at a set apiece and playing a third set that could have gone either way. All three matches ended with the team that won the dramatic third set going on to win rather easily in game four.

Bottom line is that five matches later, I still don’t know much more than I did when I left the preview. I know that Adena is really good, and I know that as many as five teams could make a run at a second-place finish. I still say Westfall is probably the team with the inside track for that position, but this year has proven that we are only a momentum change away from changing our minds.

It was reported last week that Westfall’s Carlie Burke left in the first of five sets against Southeastern due to a hamstring injury. At the time of the injury, Westfall was afraid of the severity, but early diagnosis reported to the website was optimistic. Unfortunately, it was reported to the website today that Carlie will need surgery as she has torn her hamstring to the bone.

Burke, just a junior, has been said to be Westfall’s verbal leader from the back row. She was averaging just shy of three digs per set – a total that had her in the top-10 of the SVC. SVCsportszone would like to wish Carlie a full and speedy recovery.

Congrats to Unioto! Southeastern played really well tonight, but Unioto was one stroke better. Check out the website for details.