OVAC Needs to Hear From its Membership

The OHSAA recently announced that girls’ wrestling and boys’ volleyball are classified as emerging sports. That means starting the 2022-23 season, official OHSAA state championships will be handed out as both sports are now officially sanctioned.

That’s great news for both respective sports’ coaches’ associations, which have been sponsoring non-state sanctioned tournaments and crowing champions since 1988 and 2020 for boys’ volleyball and girls’ wrestling, respectively.

The news came during the start of the annual Ohio Valley Athletic Conference’s heralded wrestling championships, held last week at WesBanco Arena.

There, the Wheeling Park Patriots were crowned overall champions. Might next year, there be two overall champions so honored?

That all depends on the OVAC membership.

“We’ll send a surve out to the schools and see who is going to have a girls’ wrestling, or boys’ volleyball program,” said Dirk Decoy, the OVAC’s Executive Director. “If 25 percent of the member schools accept it, then we will accept that sports into the OVAC.”

Decoy said he thinks the number of schools needed is around 14.

Last week, 22 female wrestlers competed during the OVAC tournament. For the first time, one earned a place on the medal stand. Warren Local’s Hayley Snyder finished seventh at 113. But Snyder was already a champion coming into the tournament.

Shes’s a two-time state champion, winning back-to-back titles at 101 pounds during the first two girls Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches’ Association state tournaments.

Might next season be the chance she can call herself an OVAC champion as well?                                                                                                                

The OVAC has come close to adding another sports to its roster recently, and that’s girls’ golf. But it’s yet to reach the 14-member school mark for qualifying, falling a few short.

“We haven’t had anyone ask about girls’ wrestling or boys’ volleyball (previously), but we do get girls’ golf,” Decoy said. “But we don’t have the 14 schools yet. We also get asked about archery.”

Decoy did not that there was an atmosphere of Q&A at the wrestling tournament after the announcement, but it was more geared toward boys’ volleyball and what season it might compete in.

Many thought it might be the fall, given that’s when girls’ volleyball is held, but no, it’s in the spring. That way, it doesn’t compete with either football or boys’ basketball for players.

Meanwhile, the are girls’ competing already locally in pee-wee wrestling, at the junior high levels, and on high school teams.

Shenandoah fields its own girls’ team and other schools have a few girls on the boys’ team.

Only time will tell how quickly these two sports can be integrated into the OVAC. Given the difference in recreation and youth level opportunities between the two, the betting money is likely on girls’ wrestling first making its way as opposed to boys’ volleyball.

Different States, Different Classifications

One stumbling block to getting enough member schools to participate is the fact that, while Ohio has officially recognized the sports, the WVSSAC across the border has not.

Girls can still wrestle in West Virginia, but they do so as part of the boys’ team, not a separate team.

But if enough Ohio teams start fielding teams, might West Virginia-side OVAC schools follow suit?

It wouldn’t be without precedent.

The OHSAA officially recognizes bowling, but the WVSSAC does not. That hasn’t stopped the OVAC from sponsoring bowling or holding tournaments.

The OVAC cheer championships are held yearly to a tremendous turnout. West Virginia considers cheerleading a sanctionable sport. Ohio has yet to get on board. But like in bowling, that hasn’t stopped Ohio teams from competing, and winning.

“We do the same thing with bowling and cheerleading,” Decoy said. “We’re not dependent upon if the state association sanctions the sport. If enough of our schools want to compete in that sport, we’ll sponsor it.”