CHESAPEAKE, Ohio - The good news is Chesapeake High School won't have to face Wheelersburg, Nelsonville-York or Columbus Hartley as possible football playoff opponents.
The bad news is the Panthers could run into Lucasville Valley, Adena and Columbus Ready in the postseason.
Chesapeake was the only area school to be reclassified to a lower designation for 2015 by the Ohio High School Athletic òòò½ÊÓƵsociation. Classifications are based on enrollment figures and are adjusted every two years. Chesapeake has 134 boys, making it the smallest school in the Ohio Valley Conference, which also includes Coal Grove, Fairland, Ironton, Portsmouth, Rock Hill, South Point and, in 2016, Gallipolis.
"I knew we would," Panthers coach Andy Clark said of the drop from Division V to Division VI. "We dropped 40 boys."
Clark said the division switch makes little, if any, difference. He said football in Ohio is rugged no matter what division in which a team plays.
"Honestly, there's not really a big difference," Clark said. "You can;t worry about the playoffs until you get there. We won't have Wheelersburg and Hartley, but we'll have Lucasville Valley, Nelsonville-York and a lot of other teams who are good. Until last year, Lucasville Valley had beaten Wheelersburg three or four years. It's tough no matter where you are."
Clark said he expects his football roster to remain close to the same or maybe even increase a bit in numbers. Last season, Chesapeake began the season with 36 players on its roster.
"The last 10 to 15 years, it's gone back and forth," Clark said. "When I was an assistant with coach (Phil) Davis, we'd go from 170 boys to 150 to 140 and back to 170. Some classes are just smaller than others. It fluctuates for whatever reason."
Clark said being the smallest school in the OVC won't motivate his players more than they normally are. Coal Grove, with 137 boys, is the next-smallest school in the league.
"It doesn't really change anything," Clark said.
Two other area schools, Minford and Oak Hill, moved down in classification, going from Division IV to Division V. Minford has 180 boys. Oak Hill has 157.
Rock Hill and Wheelersburg narrowly missed moving down from Division V. Rock Hill has 151 boys. Wheelersburg has 152. The cutoff for Division IV was 149.
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