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The ITCL Stays Together - Guidelines for Tiers will Change
Jackson-Milton was looking for alternatives to league membership due to the recent change in the ITCL, moving the Jays to the Upper Tier at the beginning in the 2012-2013 academic season. That pressure, along with some other member schools growing concerns with issues of competitive balance, forced the executive board of the ITCL to meet regularly the past couple of months to discuss and iron out changes that would solidify and keep the continuity of the league.
According to the ITCL's Commissioner Paul Andraso, this is what the superintendents of the ITCL have come up with: the ITCL will continue to be a 16-team league with two divisions or tiers. However, beginning with the 2013-2014 season, the divisions will be determined upon enrollment in gender.
That means that Jackson-Milton, based upon current enrollment figures, would move "down" to the Lower Tier in boys sports, while the girls will move "up" to the Upper Tier in girls athletics. Other schools that would change Tiers include Columbiana and Southern, which would both move to the Upper Tier, and Mineral Ridge would move to the Lower Tier in boys athletics. In girls athletics, Columbiana would also end up moving to the Lower Tier.
"We could see a lot more movement between Tiers in the future," Andraso said. "We have six schools with a difference of seven girls in enrollment. We could see schools moving every two years."
Andraso also pointed out that the Ohio Department of Education will gather enrollment figures from all Ohio schools in October of 2012, then the OHSAA will determine divisions in March of 2013. Those figures will then be used to determine athletic divisions for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons. So the ITCL may need to re-adjust once again prior to the 2014 football season as the ITCL makes their adjustments a year after the OHSAA alignment figures.
"All sixteen schools are 100 percent behind this, and committed to it," Andraso added. "It could be a little bit of a nightmare for the Athletic Directors, we could have reshuffling every two years."
Andraso pointed out that one drawback may be traditional rivals having to switch back and forth between in league and non-conference games. He pointed out that Columbiana and Crestview will always want to play each other, but they may need to adjust their future schedules based upon which division the two rivals play in.
As far as adding any new teams to the league like Beaver Local to the mix, Andraso said it wasn't a serious consideration. "Beaver Local is HUGE compared to our league. That is crazy to consider them. They have over 200 more students then our largest school. I mean geographically it makes sense."
He added that Salem has also been mentioned, but for the same reason, they have not been given serious consideration. "There just isn't a whole lot of other small school leagues out there in the four-county area. I mean there is the NAC to the North, but other than some private schools there just isn't anywhere for schools to go.
A map of Firestone Park with the Softball Association's fields is now up on their website
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