Ohio held its first boys’ soccer state championship match in 1976, when Cincinnati Finneytown defeated Brecksville-Broadview Heights 2-0.
There were no multiple-class tournaments that inaugural season. In fact, it wasn’t until 1981 before enough teams were fielded for a two-class system.
Across the river in West Virginia, the sport took a little longer to take hold, but Huntington St. Joseph defeated Morgantown 2-1 in 1988 for the Mountain State’s first “futbol” champions. Girls’ championships followed suit years later in Ohio and West Virginia, first competing in 1985 and 1995 respectively.
Here locally, the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference held its first OVAC Cup Championship for boys back in 1991 when the Eric Sendaydiego-led Patriots of Wheeling Park won the conference’s first title.
The girls began four years later, with Wheeling Park, under the direction of Debbie Glines capturing that first cup. The Cup split into two divisions in 1999 and into three for the 2003 season. This allowed for some of the smaller schools to compete for championships without having to wade through some of the OVACs largest schools.
“It used to be all one division and only the top eight teams made it,” recalled St. Clairsville head coach Wes Stoner. “There was an argument good or bad for it either way vs. how it is now, but I didn’t have a problem with it either way. But it was really difficult though, and I think the OVAC recognized that, for smaller schools to compete with say Wheeling Park or Morgantown, at least generally speaking.”
Stoner would remember. While he’s been the girls’ coach at St. Clairsville since 2013, when his Red Devils captured the Class 4A tournament, he also was a player.
A 2000 graduate of St. Clairsville, he played for the Red Devils’ boys team during the 1996 through 1999 seasons, meaning he played three seasons under the one-class format, one in the split division.
Sometimes it does boil down to numbers.
The smaller schools generally roll with the numbers they receive. The boys or girls that show up to the first day of summer practice mostly all make the team. Larger schools have the luxury of big turnouts and may even have to hold roster cutdowns, meaning they can keep the best of the best.
“We’ve never had enough players where we’ve had to cut people,” Stoner said. “Which I’m kind of glad because that’s never something you enjoy doing. But, on the other side, when you do have to do that, it means you have a large number of kids which is great for your program.”
Youth Development is Key
Look at the traditionally strong programs in the OVAC and you’ll find one thing in common: All roster members come from communities with longstanding youth leagues and developmental programs.
Communities like Wheeling, Weirton, Steubenville, St. Clairsville – even Wellsburg – all have strong youth leagues that help develop young players. Wheeling’s dates back to the 1980s while others like St. Clairsville, which first started playing in 1993, arrived a little later to the party.
Stoner, who grew up initially in Brooke County over in West Virginia, started his soccer career playing in the Bethany recreation league. Once he started improving and wanted to further challenge himself, Stoner tried out and started playing for a club team based out of Wheeling around the U-9, U-10 age group.
When the family moved to St. Clairvsille, soccer at Capstone was still in its infancy. For most players during the 1990s in this part of the OVAC footprint, Wheeling was still the place to play.
“If anyone wanted to play year-round at that point, you went to Wheeling, or, in the winter, we went up to Zanesville,” Stoner recalled.
Recreation leagues are paramount to player development and, subsequently, the development of high school programs as coaches are getting players with multiple years of experience.
Moreso, the schools with the most club players tend to do well. These teams hold tryouts, taking the top players from the area and play a competitive schedule year-round.
“If you’re playing club anywhere in the area, you are at least a decent player and likely a very good one,” Stoner said. “You can tell just by looking at the top teams in the (OVAC), the best have the most club players. That’s just the way it is.
“These kids are competing year-round at high levels.”
Stoner’s roster usually features at least 2-3 club players and one at point, his best was 8-9 of his starting 11 were “club.”
Teams like Wheeling Park and Morgantown, most of the team’s roster has some club experience. The same can be said for most of the larger, more successful programs.
Continuing to Grow
While the OVAC itself, and the sport have continued to grow in recent years, most of the teams currently playing have been fielding teams for years.
There are new additions, however, primarily at smaller schools like Caldwell and Shenandoah. These teams are new to the game and field co-ed teams which must compete with an all-boys schedule.
Other teams like Union Local and Monroe Central, which also field co-ed teams, have been around a little longer. As interest continues to grow, might those teams expand into individual boys’ and girls’ teams?
There are currently 27 schools competing on the boys’ side and 24 on the girls. As youth league numbers continue to grow, the call for a soccer team at other OVAC-area high schools may grow as well.
