Before the 2012-13 school year tipped off, the Ohio High School Athletic Association made a move to correct an issue that had been plaguing sectional-district tournaments involving team sports.
Through the 2011-12 school year, the coaches of the top four seeds at each sectional-district for volleyball, boys soccer and girls soccer in the fall, boys and girls basketball in the winter and baseball and softball in the spring were required to place their squads in different quarters of their respective tournament bracket.
Once the top three seeds in each event chose their spots on the bracket, that allowed the fourth seed at each tournament little, if any, choice at all. Then, the fifth seed, and those that followed, could jump on any remaining line on the bracket.
Meaning, of course, the lower-seeded fifth squad had more maneuverability than the fourth seed.
That led to coaches at pretty much every sectional-district to lobby for “anything but the fourth seed” because being the fourth seed would limit their options.
Thankfully, the OHSAA changed the procedure before the current school year.
Now, the only stipulation is the first- and second-seeded teams must be in different halves of every sectional-district bracket.
After that, coaches of the rest of the teams in each tournament can choose to go anywhere they’d like on their respective bracket.
Top Dawg
The author of one of the coolest books to come across our sports desk in recent months will be in the region next week to promote his book.
Former Browns cornerback Hanford Dixon will visit Barnes & Noble Booksellers, located at 7900 Mentor Avenue in Mentor, Saturday, Nov. 24.
Dixon’s appearance will run from 2-3 p.m. and he will be there to meet and greet fans and autograph copies of his new book, “Day of the Dawg; A Football Memoir,” recently published by Gray & Company.
The event is free and open to the public.
Dixon’s book is, simply put, a must for any Browns fan who followed the team from the Red Right 88 era through The Drive, The Fumble and a third appearance in the AFC Championship Game after the 1990 season.
The book offers an inside look at the turbulent, exciting, and frustrating Cleveland Browns seasons of the 1980s. He shares what it was like to be a first-round draft pick fighting for the starting job in training camp and what it took, mentally and physically, to play the toughest sport at the highest level. He describes the adrenaline rush of whipping up a frenzied crowd of 80,000 rabid fans in Cleveland Stadium and the thrill of being one game away from the Super Bowl‚ three times.
Dixon played his entire NFL career (1981-1989) for the Browns after being the 22nd pick in the first round of the 1981 NFL Draft. His habit of barking at teammates, fans, and opponents inspired the “Dawg Pound,” the name still used for the vocal and excitable end-zone section of fans at Browns games.
He and teammate Frank Minnifield were selected as the No 2 best cornerback Tandem of all-time by NFL.com.
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