Hiland girl's coach Dave Schlabach told me last weekend that the OHSAA is going to consider having the regular season extended by 2 games.

The upside for a school like Hiland, who is in a weak league on the girls side, or any school in a similar situation, is that they can schedule 2 more strong opponents.

The down side is, well, let's hear it.

I don't really see that 22 games is necessary. The first 20 games are basically scrimmages anyhow. Yes, I know, that league titles are nice but the goal should be to win the state title. So, 20 games ought to be plenty to get ready for the tourney, considering that you also get numerous scrimmages.

I guess you're extending the season by a week--either on the front side (which cuts into football playoffs, and makes rescheduling more missed games eevn more of a problem--doubt they will do that), or on the back side, which esentially takes you into April and cuts into baseball, effecting the kids that play both sports particularly.

ricola wrote: I guess you're extending the season by a week--either on the front side (which cuts into football playoffs, and makes rescheduling more missed games eevn more of a problem--doubt they will do that), or on the back side, which esentially takes you into April and cuts into baseball, effecting the kids that play both sports particularly.

Doubtful. How many weeks are your schedule only have 1 game? There you go.

FYI, I counted 4 weeks on our girl's schedule that only had 1 game scheduled.

More is not always better. I'm not sure the ability to better prepare to "win the State Title" is, first of all, a legitimate goal for every team. The seasons already run into each other, with practice and tryouts for one season overlapping an already existing season. With scrimmages and the like, plus daily practice thrown in, I think that 20 games is more than enough to "prepare to win a State Title". I think that expanding the existing season will lead to more specialization, with coaches being even more insistent that "their" athletes remain as one sport athletes and leave the other competing sports. I like the idea of a kid getting the opportunity to play a reasonable number of contests in each sport with a brief R and R period between the sports to heighten the excitement and reinvigorate the athlete for the new sport coming up next. Variety is the spice of life, so they say. Let's give our kids the chance to experiment and try a lot of new things during high school. God only knows they will soon be locked in to a job and their choices will be to work or to work.

TMajic wrote: I don't really see that 22 games is necessary. The first 20 games are basically scrimmages anyhow. Yes, I know, that league titles are nice but the goal should be to win the state title. So, 20 games ought to be plenty to get ready for the tourney, considering that you also get numerous scrimmages.

I agree with this. I don't think it is necessary either. I wonder if it is just to bring in more money?

For the record I do not think it is necessary either.

Swamp Fox, since you mentioned it in your post a few times, why wouldn't a team set winning a state title as a goal? Sure it would be unrealistic for most teams but that is why they have the tournament at the end of the season. There have been cinderella stories before. But, this discussion is for another thread. The extra two games wouldn't be of benefit to most of the teams anyway, then. I feel the same way about the jv games. All the games that the jvs play are scrimmages, and they don't even have a tournament.

As was mentioned, there is no need to extend the season because there are weeks with 1 game. Some schools are playing 3 games in a week due to football playoff and weather cancellations.

Money also has to be a concern. Travel and game costs. Some schools, especially with girls games, could lose money due to minimal ticket/concession income.

Maybe allow it to be optional? If you want those 2 extra games, you can have them. If you don't, schedule 20.

As a fan, I'm not opposed to watching 2 more quality games. Rear end can get sore though. I saw 16 games last Sat through Monday and was back in there Tuesday. It felt like the 4th night of a revival meeting!

Extending the season 2 more games is a good idea for Ohio high school basketball. With the extra games put on the schedule, the players and coaches will be more tournament prepared and have more time to develop and grow as a time over the course of the season. This could potentially add a week or 2 onto the season which is fine. But, the only downside that I see is basketball interfering with the end of fall sports and the beginning of spring sports. Learning ways to compromise and work out schedules would be a huge priority (not that it isn't already).
Extend the season!

Good to see you here rico82.

How much more time is needed? The season has 12 weeks to get 20 games in, and 3 weeks of preseason work. I just don't see where the extra games are a necessity. Scheduling-wise, even though there are teams that only have one game during a week, the teams that you may be able to play could be a LONG bus ride away.

FWIW this was proposed and voted down this past year...

not likly to happen in the near future

No one wants Obamacare either, but it keeps coming back.

BDan, Would you want 2 more games or do you like the 20?

If it come to pass, I think putting the games at the end of the season would work better than at the beginning. As mentioned earlier, that could cut into baseball and softball season, but the start of baseball and softball season often has games rained and snowed out, so pushing those schools back a week would actually help.

If they would extend the regular season to 22 games, I would like to see them limit the number of teams that make the tournament. I know that will never happen because of $$$$$$$$$$

ODE and the Ohio ASSembly could do a lot to help the scheduling nightmares that would be adding 2 more games. They could get out of the 19th century and realize that school should be a year round process. Not adding days, but spreading them out over more time would spread the sports seasons giving all more time to prepare and play games. Nothing worse than watching a baseball/softball team trying to practice in a gym to get read for a season! lol

As for doing it, I say no.

This has been brought up by the basketball coaches almost every year and every year the OHSAA has voted overwhelmingly NO.

Its funny, about 10 years ago, the OHSAA decided to try and help the athletes in general by shortening the Fall and winter seasons. Football lost a scrimmage and the fall season was shortened to not begin until the second week in August and be done by the end of October with the exception of football playoffs. (and maybe the first week of November for the State Championships in Soccer & Volleyball.).

The Winter season was greatly cut to not begin until the second week in November and be done by mid-February with the Basketball playoffs concluding by early to mid-March.

The idea was to give space between the seasons at most schools. Slowly, the OHSAA has given into the whines of the various coaches in the state. They have taken football back to 3 scrimmages and slowly added weeks to the basketball season so that now it runs from the first Friday in November through the end of March (end of February for the great majority of teams.). The Basketball coaches even got the state to move the start date of practice from a Monday to a Friday to squeeze three more days out of the athletes.

So much for the OHSAA putting the well being of the athletes first by giving them time off! If they give in to this 22 game stupidity, then it just proves they don't really care about the kids....only the $$$$$.

Winter is already the longest season. (21 weeks if a team makes it all the way to the State Championship... nearly HALF a year!) Even if a team simply makes it through the sectionals, (over 250 teams), the kids will be involved for 16-17 weeks.

In contrast, the average fall season is less than 12 weeks for most of the fall sports. (16 if a Soccer team makes it to States and 18 for football all the way to the States.) Spring is even shorter...the majority of spring teams are in season 10 weeks. A team making it to the State Softball, baseball or track would be in season about 13 weeks. (and before you argue "more games," softball & baseball have 27 game seasons!)

So why does basketball need so much more time to play their season??
You can bet that if the OHSAA gives these two games to the Coaches Association, then next year they will be asking for more weeks because they need to fit in these extra games!

Basketball is given more time to get in its games to allow for rescheduling in case of bad weather.

fossywriter8... try dealing with the nightmares of baseball and softball! (of course I've lobbied for years that they should NOT stop playing when tourney come around! I hate teams limited to 15 or 16 games... losing their tourney game in the first week of May... then sitting and whining about not playing enough games... while the sun is shining on a bright, beautiful late May evening! but that's another story!)

Pariah wrote: No one wants Obamacare either, but it keeps coming back.

BDan, Would you want 2 more games or do you like the 20?

it will keep coming back...
it was voted down by a large number

I know our coaches association says they will keep fighting for it... but it's a long way from having support!

I think 20+ post season is fine

I think it will swing back to limiting various sports time before it goes to adding more time...

I must say that there are a lot of great ideas and thoughts in this thread. I agree with the statement that more is not better.

personally i think it would be great.. i would love to see a couple more games an i know for one my boy would love to play a couple more reguardless of the reasoning behind it, rather financial for ohsaa, so let it happen..high school bball is fun to watch so the more the better,,,an honestly, i dont relly see two basketball games throwing a big wrench in any other sports seasons...IMO

no way it's needed. Teams already have enough problems with football playoffs pushing games back...also with weather. The only way I could see it getting done is if you would stipulate that a football team made it past week 3 of the playoffs they would just cancel 2 games instead of rescheduling.....and any games (up to 2) that are postponed by weather would be cancelled. Sure some teams would play 22 games, others may not, but it happens in baseball all the time...not a big deal.

There is the issue of injuries too. Although if the kids aren't playing, then they are practicing, so it might be a wash in terms of risk for that.