DON McCORMACK
First, this is not an indictment of any coach or the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
That having been said, the OHSAA needs to consider tinkering with the process it utilizes for its seeding for its postseason tournaments.
As few years ago, the OHSAA took a positive step when it mandated that every team in a sectional-district tournament would be seeded.
Previous to that, the governing body of high school athletics took an even bigger step in the right direction when it did away with the secret-ballot system for voting for seeds and had each coach’s votes read aloud.
But the OHSAA needs to take one more step.
As it stands, the system mandates that each of the top four teams at every sectional-district must be in a different quarter of the bracket. However, there is a fly in the ointment, and it showed itself at the drawing for the Pymatuning Valley Division II sectional-district girls tournament Sunday at Perry.
Coach Nancy Barbo’s Geneva Eagles were the unanimous No. 1 seed.
After that, it was kind of a mixed bag, with coach Tony Pasanen’s Conneaut Spartans earning the two seed and coach Rod Holmes’ Jefferson Falcons being award the third seed.
In balloting for the second and third seed, Perry coach Ryan Dolotowski voted for his squad. There’s certainly nothing wrong with him doing that. Dolotowski’s Pirates, with 11 wins, tied Chagrin Valley Conference Chagrin Division rival Kenston for the fourth-most wins of the 11-team field, including an overtime win against the Bombers last week at Spectator Gymnasium.
Anyway, his Pirates didn’t receive the second or third seed, which leads us to the fourth seed.
Whom did Dolotowski give his vote to for the fourth seed?
His Pirates?
Nope.
Kenston.
Therein lies the problem. Dolotowski knew what every coach at every tournament draw knows — having a good team, one which stands to be seeded somewhere in the upper half of the field — there is but one place you do NOT want to be seeded.
You guessed it.
The four spot.
Because with the rule that mandates each of the top four seeds must be in a different quarter of the bracket, there really is no advantage to being the fourth seed because you have precious few options. In Dolotowski’s case, he had no choice whatsoever where to place his team as the only quarter of the bracket not occupied by one of the top three seeds was a two-team sectional final bracket, leaving him two lines to place his squad, the only difference in those spots being which color uniform his team would wear, which bench it would sit on and what locker room it would dress in.
Conversely, the fifth seed has a plethora of options, which ironically, was Kenston on Sunday. While Dolotowski had no choice as to where his team would begin postseason play, Bombers coach Kevin Hinkle did.
He could have placed his team in a sectional semifinal in the top quarter of the bracket , but that would have resulted in a second-round matchup with top-seeded Geneva.
He could have opted for a bye in the upper half, but that would have led to a second-round game against either second-seeded Conneaut or eighth-seeded NDCL.
Hinkle also had the chance to play a sectional semifinal in the lower half, but that would have led to a second-round clash with third-seeded Jefferson.
His final option, the one he selected, as a first-round bye and a third matchup with Perry in a sectional final.
None of which was especially preferred, but at least Hinkle — coach of the fifth-seeded squad — had options.
Dolotowski, coach of the fourth-seeded team — did not.
And that’s wrong.
Basketball season is a fourth-month torture test of physical, mental and emotional abilities. It’s cold, it’s snowy and it’s dark outside seemingly all the time.
Teams that don’t win many games have a very difficult time making it through a season without having their collective spirit broken. It’s difficult being an opponent night in, night out, for better teams.
But even teams that win more than they lose have their wills tested quite frequently during the course of the 125-day-or-so season. Injuries, sickness, internal conflict... those are issues every team faces at some point in a season, I guarantee you.
The tournament trail represents a second season of sorts, providing also-rans the opportunity to jump up and bite someone and plant a higher-seeded team and also the chance for teams that excel and even thrive to play as deep as they can into the postseason jungle, which is the reward for when the real improvement takes place in a program — from 30 days after the previous year’s season ends through the first week of August.
Ryan Dolotowski’s Perry Pirates are one of the latter type of teams, one which he understandably believes is deserving of a high seed for sectional-district play.
His squad certainly was deserving of a fourth seed — if not higher — and he and his girls should be rewarded for that by having more options than all but three teams in the 11-team field at PV.
However, with the current system, that wasn’t the case.
And it’s wrong.
McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.
