Cincinnati Wyoming went 10-0 in 1978 and won the Ohio Associated Press Class AA football poll title.
That same season, Ironton went 9-0 in Class AA, losing a game from its schedule due to a teachers’ strike at Logan.
Fostoria St. Wendelin went 10-0 in 1983, outscoring opponents by nearly 400 points, one season after losing by a single TD in the Class A state title game to Newark Catholic.
What do those teams have in common, other than undefeated seasons?
All of them were denied postseason berths under the point systems and size classifications then in place by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
Unbelievable, right?
Those are just three examples off the top of my head Sunday night when I looked at the 2023 OHSAA playoff matchups for seven divisions across 28 regions that include 448 teams earning spots in the postseason.
There are many, many more examples of Ohio prep football playoff injustice.
When the state football playoffs started in 1972, just 12 teams across the state made the postseason in Class AA, AA and A combined.
The expansion process began in 1980 when it was broken into five divisions.
The OHSAA has continued to expand the playoff pool over the years, slowly reaching today’s situation.
Naturally, there were some social media armchair quarterbacks sitting in their basements eating Cheetos who registered complaints on Sunday afternoon.
“How does a 5-5 team make the playoffs?”
“They have watered the playoffs down so much they don’t mean anything anymore.”
“Today’s Ohio high school football playoffs have become a joke.”
I got two words for you folks.
Zip it.
Let me add four more.
Why do you care?
Start with the fact every other Ohio high school team sport has a tournament that includes every team.
I have covered 0-20 high school basketball teams playing in the sectional tournament. Every soccer team, regardless of record, gets a chance. The worst golf teams get to tee it up in the sectionals.
And I think that’s great.
Why not give young people — who dedicate themselves to a sport — every chance to experience the atmosphere only the postseason can provide?
Why deny anyone the chance to make a memory they will talk about at class reunions 50 years from now?
In 1978, if Ironton had played 10 games, it would have won its region and qualified for the playoffs. Instead, it finished second to 10-0 New Concord John Glenn, a team on which I played.
We felt bad for the Tigers, but felt even better for ourselves.
In 1983, Fostoria St. Wendelin fielded the best small-school football team I have seen in four decades of covering the sport. Veteran coach Gene Peluso returned starters at 21 of 22 positions from his 1982 state runner-up team.
The Mohawks blew out every team they played, but didn’t earn enough computer points to reach the playoffs. Instead, they watched nearby McComb beat Newark Catholic, 6-0, in the 1983 state title game.
St. Wendelin had beaten McComb in the playoffs in 1982. I think it would have crushed the Panthers in 1983. But it never got the chance.
That oversight would not happen today.
Let’s face it. There are so many negatives for young people today.
Why deny seniors a chance to put on the pads and run onto the field one more time under the Friday Night Lights? Why disallow cheerleaders one more chance to do what they love? Why stop a high school band from enjoying one more halftime performance?
Congratulations to every team, every coach, every cheerleader, every band member and every city and town that gets at least one more chance to come together in stadiums around Ohio.
You have earned it, regardless of what the basement-dwelling naysayers type into their negative social media streams of disgust.
Why would you not want a community to have one more chance to unite behind one of the most positive things it has today?
Namely, its youth.