New OHSAA Football Divisional/Regional Assignments

Have been released.  East Liverpool will remain in Division III Region 11.  The most noteworthy change is that, after a two year drop to DIV, Steubenville is back up to DIII and will also be in R11.  Also, Cardinal Mooney has moved up to DIII and will be in R9.

In other local news, at a quick glance it appears that United Local has dropped from DIV to DV and will now be in the same region as the likes of Crestview and North Lima South Range.  And in DVI the Columbiana County schools are no longer in the NE Ohio length of US 224 region.  Leetonia, Wellsville, and Southern Local are in SE Ohio along with Toronto, Shadyside, and on down to Reedsville Eastern.

Potters Lose to Cambridge in Sectional Final

60-50 was the final score at the rec center on the campus of Ohio University Belmont.  The Potters gave a good effort, but weren’t hot enough from the perimeter to overcome the Bobcats being a more complete team.  Cambridge won each quarter by 2 or 3 points to slowly pull away and the game was not in much doubt the final few minutes.  Oh well.  Getting to the sectional final is probably the correct result for this Potters team.  The effort was there and Coach Cashdollar did a good job with this team, irregardless of the comments of some idiots in the stands and on JJHuddle.  When the backcourt is entirely freshmen and sophomores you are going to have at times uneven play.  With another year of work Dickey, Tompkins, and Beverly should be scary good by next season.  The frontcourt will be a worry, as I saw nothing else on the JV team to supplement Prentice and Blankenship.

Unfortunately this game got a bit chippy at times.  Beverly was called for a technical at the end of the 3rd quarter, and Cambridge’s #45 got into a verbal contest with Marty Webb in the middle of the 4th quarter.  Also, while I missed the meaty part of it, there was some unpleasantries during the postgame hand shaking which is obviously rather unfortunate.  I did see the Cambridge coach rather forcefully telling his player to settle down afterwards.

Potters Win Tourney Opener

53-42 over Wintersville Indian Creek.  The game was played in a nice facility on the campus of Ohio University Eastern in St. Clairsville.  I kinda felt like I was at the YMCA sitting there watching people use the treadmills and stationary bikes above the bleachers across the way, but a nice court, well-lit, clean facility, seats near the action, paved parking lots outside, reasonably priced concessions.  In other words, everything that St. John Arena in Steubenville is not.  A bit of a bummer to be driving over an hour just to reach your Sectional site, but that is nothing knew for East Liverpool either.

Anyhow, as for the game, it started off rather slowly for the Potters, as the Indian Creek defense was flummoxing the Potter effort, and on offense the Redskins were having some success with patient cutting, including a few back cuts for easy looks.  Also, the ball just seemed to be bouncing their way and they got entirely too many offensive rebounds.  They were taking it to the Potters, who were short-handed as Willie Leavell was not in uniform (he was there on the bench I believe he was simply ill) and Dickey, Thompkins, and Prentice were all saddled with foul trouble.  I think Coach Dunlevy of Indian Creek made a huge tactical blunder when he pulled the ball out with a full 2 minutes remaining in the 1st half leading 21-17.  It didn’t even work as they committed a turnover in the final half minute and the score remained unchanged at halftime.  But, even if they do eventually score with the last shot, they should’ve been pressing their advantages and the momentum they had, try to build a 8 or 10 point lead by halftime.  Because at halftime the Potters were able to get a bit over the foul issues (only Thompkins had 3) and found new energy.  They pressured Indian Creek into mistakes and found more rhythmn in the halfcourt offense and lead 36-30 by the end of the 3rd quarter and quickly built a double digit lead in the 4th.  From there Creek was reduced to forming a parade to the foul line.  They did draw within 47-40 briefly in the final minute of the game but a couple empty possessions after that doomed them.

Indian Creek did a good job keeping Jason Dickey bottled up and I think he ended with only 5 points.  But Da’Neill Prentice had a great game, and the other guys in the rotation contributed their points as well.  So now the Potters advance to the sectional final (district semifinal) Saturday night at 7pm against whoever won the Edison v Cambridge game.  I assume Cambridge won, but at last check no confirmation was up on JJHuddle yet.  This figures to be a much harder game for the Potters; they will need to bring it for the full 32 minutes.  Hopefully Leavell will be available so they can have a comfortable 8 man rotation.

Potter Athletic Committee Recommends Asher Football Coach

It is not official until the school board takes action, which is expected to happen on March 9th, but it was unanimously recommended they approve the coaching contract for Mark Asher to be the next football coach at East Liverpool.  He apparently comes with experience at the collegiate level including with Jim Tressel at Ohio St.  He is quoted as saying he wants to run a variable formation offense and a fly to the ball defense.  Which is fine by me.  More importantly, he was quoted in The Review as saying he wants to stress fundamentals, Xs & Os football and weight traning.  I hope he succeeds in that goal.  What cost the Potters under McNicol more than anything was that the team didn’t block people and it got pushed off the ball on defense.  In other words, the technique was lacking and perhaps the strength was lacking as well.  The 2008 team would’ve been at least .500 on the field if it blocked people and if it didn’t waste its time with so many slow developing misdirection plays and plays where the quarterback rolls out to the short side and to the left while being right handed.  It sounded in the paper today like this guy has some common sense, and I am hopeful.

Reportedly Beaver Local coach Rich Wright pulled his name from consideration late in the process.  I would be curious to know why.  Frankly, I was a bit surprised he applied to begin with, as far as that goes.  Hopefully there aren’t too many in the community that don’t give Asher a chance because they wanted Wright, or wanted Al Johnson.  Asher deserves our support until proven otherwise.

OVAC Boys Playoff Pairings

OVAC BOYS BASKETBALL PAIRINGS

SEMI-FINALS
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 played at higher seeded team’s court
CLASS 4-A
#4 East Liverpool at #1 Wheeling Park
#3 Weir at #2 John Marshall
CLASS 3-A
#4 Oak Glen at #1 Union Local
#3 Magnolia at #2 St. Clairsville
CLASS 2-A
#4 Shenandoah at 1 Fort Frye
#3 Shadyside at #2 Wheeling Central
CLASS 1-A
#4 Cameron at #1 Bishop Donahue
#3 Paden City at #2 Bridgeport

CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS
Saturday, February 21, 2009
All games played at OUE, highest seeded team designated as home team
CLASS 2-A at 10 a.m.
CLASS 3-A at 1 p.m.
CLASS 4-A at 4 p.m.
CLASS 1-A at 7 p.m.

CHAMPIONSHIP CONSOLATIONS
To be played at the higher seeded team’s court
Friday, February 20, 2009

CONSOLATION POOL
FIRST ROUND
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Buckeye Local at Brooke
Indian Creek at Steubenville
Edison at Barnesville
Frontier at Martins Ferry
Bellaire at Monroe Central
Linsly at Bishop Rosecrans
Harrison Central at Steubenville Central
St. John Central at Caldwell
Beallsville at Weirton Madonna
River at Toronto

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Caldwell at Valley

SECOND ROUND
Friday, February 20, 2009
Steubenville Central at Buckeye Local
Barnesville at IndianCreek
Brooke at Edison
Bishop Rosecrans at Frontier
Steubenville at Bellaire
Martins Ferry at Linsly
Monroe Central at Harrison Central
Valley at St. John Central
Toronto at Beallsville
Weirton Madonna at River

Potters Sit 4th

The heading on these standings do not say final, but it is updated as of the day after what I believe was the cutoff date.  So, with that caveat:

School	W	L	CP	AVG
Wheeling Park	12	4	840	52.5
John Marshall	12	4	814	50.9
Weir	11	4	682	45.5
East Liverpool	8	8	504	31.5
Buckeye Local	8	10	520	28.9
Indian Creek	7	10	428	25.2
Steubenville	5	12	346	20.4
Brooke	3	11	194	13.9
Edison	2	12	146	10.4
*Cambridge	12	5	0	0.0
*Beaver Local	0	15	0	0.0
*Parkersburg South	12	3	0	0.0
*Zanesville	8	7	0	0.0

Potters On Cusp of Making OVAC Playoffs

But its a razor-thin lead over Indian Creek and Buckeye Local with just a couple days to go until the cutoff date.  Beating Martin’s Ferry on Tuesday would seem to be an imperative:

School	W	L	CP	AVG
Wheeling Park	11	4	772	51.5
John Marshall	11	4	734	48.9
Weir	10	4	610	43.6
East Liverpool	7	8	440	29.3
Indian Creek	7	9	424	26.50
Buckeye Local	7	10	450	26.47
Steubenville	5	11	342	21.4
Brooke	3	10	192	14.8
Edison	2	11	142	10.9
*Beaver Local	0	15	0	0.0
*Cambridge	11	5	0	0.0
*Zanesville	6	6	0	0.0
*Parkersburg South	12	3	0	0.0

32 Have Applied to be Potters Next Football Coach

http://www.reviewonline.com/page/content.detail/id/510027.html?nav=5008

Most interesting on this list is current Beaver Local coach, and East Liverpool alum, Rich Wright.  Not sure if there is a particular reason he might want to leave Beaver Local (that program has been down the past couple years after the glory he brought there earlier this decade) or if he simply wants to return to his alma mater.  The other big name would be Eric Meek, who won a state title or two in West Virginia Class AA with Weirton.  My biggest hesitation with Meek is style; I still remember them doing an onside kick against the Potters while leading 42-0 about 5 years ago now.  If it weren’t for that that I would probably favor him.  As far as that goes, I still like Al Johnson getting the gig.  My assumption, looking at this list, is the job is probably Rich Wright’s, but I would advise you stay tuned.

Updated OVAC Standings

Losing to Linsly and not playing the Oak Glen game as scheduled did not prevent the Potters from staying in the critical 4th spot with just over one week to go until the critical February 10th cutoff date:

School	W	L	CP	AVG
Wheeling Park	11	3	746	53.3
Weir	9	2	522	47.5
John Marshall	9	4	576	44.3
East Liverpool	6	7	366	28.2
Indian Creek	6	8	340	24.3
Buckeye Local	4	9	250	19.2
Steubenville	4	9	250	19.2
Brooke	2	8	114	11.4
Edison	1	10	68	6.2
*Beaver Local	0	13	0	0.0
*Cambridge	9	3	0	0.0
*Zanesville	4	6	0	0.0
*Parkersburg South	9	3	0	0.0

Potters Have Legit Shot at OVAC Playoffs

It is the 2nd year of this format for deciding Ohio Valley Athletic Conference championships in basketball, but the 1st year East Liverpool is playing a qualifying number of games.  Member schools have 18 game regular season games.  The top 4 in each of the 4 classifications will be paired off 1v4 and 2v3 with the winners meeting a week later on a neutral floor for the conference title.  The other schools will play each other in 2 picked up games to achieve 20 game schedules.  As it stands right now, the Potters sit 4th in AAAA:

AAAA School W L CP AVG
Wheeling Park 10 3 660 50.8
Weir 8 2 454 45.4
John Marshall 7 4 448 40.7
East Liverpool 4 7 248 22.5

Indian Creek 6 7 276 21.2
Buckeye Local 4 8 250 20.8
Steubenvlle 4 8 250 20.8
Brooke 2 8 112 11.2
Edison 1 9 68 6.8
*Beaver Local 1 11 0 0.0
*Cambridge 8 3 0 0.0
*Zanesville 4 6 0 0.0
*Parkersburg South 7 4 0 0.0

The record stated is actually wrong, as East Liverpool is 5-6 (Beaver Local is 0-12), but I assume the computer average figure, which is what matters here, is correct.  The teams at 0.0 do not play a qualifying number of games within the OVAC and are therefore ineligible.  Obviously, this is still a very fluid situation.  The Potters have remaining OVAC games with Linsly (8th in AA), Oak Glen (7th in AAA), Brooke (8th in AAAA), Steubenville (a close 7th in AAAA so obviously very crucial), and Martins Ferry (2nd in AAA).  As you can tell by the numbers, they are nowhere near 3rd right now and are very close to 7th, but if they can win most of their remaining games they will probably get in, and once in you just see what happens.  Getting a game or two of tournament experience before the state playoff sectionals start couldn’t hurt but be useful.

And no, Buckeyenewshawk hasn’t the foggiest idea how exactly those computer average numbers are calculated.  He assumes winning games is a good thing, though.