change the occ

• the comet plex

  I wrestled in the occ in the 90s and I am a fan of the occ today but. For a long time now I have thought the occ would be better if they changed the divisions. I think it would be cool to have grove city h.s, central crossing h.s, franklin heights h.s, westland h.s, groveport and even another high school not to far away if needed. Now I know people will say that franklin heights does not have as many kids in the school as the others but they are a d-1 school and have been since I was at heights and they have been in the '' small school'' capital division with those other schools with lower enrollment for a long time and have not won anything since 1997. It would make travel simple and could open up money for other wrestling tournaments/football travel and create more cross town rivals. The hilliard schools davidson,bradley,darby could join with the three dublin schools coffman,scio,jerome to form another division of the occ and so on with other schools in the central district. It has just never made any sense why it is set up the way it is now. I know its not the same today but my old occ capital division was mt vern, del hayes, m.ville, whitehall,franklin hts,big nutt, watkins mem. Im sorry but mt. vern and m.ville in the same division makes no sense at all. Just like some of the crazy divisions we have today. grove city should be with central crossing and westland. The westerville schools should be in the same division as well. Just my thought I know it will never happen this is just for fun. What do you guys think about the occ divisions. How would some of you like to see the occ set up?
• wraith51

  

  http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/sports/2015/01/08/occ-realignment-conference-adapting-to-changing-landscape.html
  
  Here's a nice article I found the other day that speaks to what you are talking about with enrollment and geography. They have Mt. Vernon still listed but they just recently accepted and invitation to join the Ohio Cardinal Conference up in the Richland Co. area. No word on whether or not they'll replace Mt. Vernon.
  
  I went to Reynoldsburg and when I was in school we were in the then new Cardinal Division that consisted of Reynoldsburg, Upper Arlington, Dublin Scioto, Chillicothe, Olentangy (when it was just one school), Thomas Worthington, and Hilliard Darby.
• newbie75

  The comet plex, I agree with you a little bit. The bad thing is they (ADs and Principals) are going to do what is best for football. Football is the money maker always will be in high school. I believe with the new conference change the competition will be better and give the opportunity for the likes of Crossing/Westland to play against Heights even though travel will still be an issue since Heights will have to travel to Newark now.
  
  To be honest with you, the capital division isn't too shabby with the likes of Hayes, Mount Vernon, Olentangy, Orange in it.
• the comet plex

  I do not see how it would hurt football at all it will not change that much. It would create some tough football divisions as well. Having heights and newark that is over a hour away from heights makes no sense other than they both are bad.
• the comet plex

  I read that article and I like the division with the 3 olentangys and the westerville schools. That was what I wanted to do with those schools. I do not like that they do not have crossing and grove city in the same division I will never understand why schools in the same town are not in the same division.
• newbie75

  the comet plex;1718040 wrote:I do not see how it would hurt football at all it will not change that much. It would create some tough football divisions as well. Having heights and newark that is over a hour away from heights makes no sense other than they both are bad.

  
  I agree with you. I am actually kind of surprised that Newark does not join the Licking County League. I am sure in about 2 more years the OCC will change again.
• cruiser_96

  

  Disband it.
• Tony Mead

  I am hearing Newark is joining LCL is this just a rumor or just for football?
• the comet plex

  well if you only look at the new occ from ''wrestling'' standpoint the occ central looks tough with m,ville,crossing,and coffman......and the north will be tough as well. I would like to see a 32 team occ tournament one year. Did any of you wrestle in the old one day occ dual? They did away with in around 97/98 season. It would be a franklin heights every season back then. We'll the capital division that is.
• newbie75

  I would love to see a 32 team tournament, but the bad thing is it would have to be a 2 day tournament. It would def get the teams ready for sectionals/districts. The question would be who could actually hold this or who would want?
• the comet plex

  grove city,central crossing,westland,h.davison,h bradley,h.darby,mville,d coffman should be in the same division. westland is not good but that is westlands fault they have enough kids to have good teams.
• the comet plex

  occ tourny could be at fair grounds or convention center. I know that will NEVER happen but it would be cool if they could do that.
• Tony Mead

  This would be an awesome Tourney, I dont care how much our sport needs Duals, this tourney would be the highlight of central Ohio right before Christmas break/Holiday tournaments! Maybe early JAN at the latest. anything else would cut into the already watered down central ohio schedules.
  
  Problem is to many teams already wrestle each other to many times with mandatory duals, state duals, and all the local tournaments. The only way for this to be made possible is for Ohsaa and OCC to make it mandatory or the coaches will simply vote against it. State duals would need adjusted and alot of local tournaments would have to be canceled or changed for this to work right. That would be cutting into pockets of local teams.
  
  I as a fan would be for a tourney of this caliber, I feel our sport from pee wee to college to olympic gold has and will always be about a tournament, this would be the highlight of central ohio wrestling similar to the CIT being the highlight of private schools.
• cruiser_96

  

  http://media.wix.com/ugd/8f98a8_7223c58aa0d34d7badd33a98c0d658f9.pdf
  
  The benefit of the OCC tournament as laid out in the above link is conference honors (1st, 2nd and 3rd team) are established, to include a true second.
  
  Personally, I would love it. But I realize I'm in the minority on that one.
  
  ps: I still say "Disband it."
• the comet plex

  well to help with the size of it they could make the first round a one and out and then from second round on have looser bracket. This tourny would be the best thing. I like the 1st 2nd and 3rd team thing as well that bracket would be so fun to seed.
• newbie75

  This would be awesome. I know it would make seeding at the end of the year a lot easier. It would def give coaches a chance to watch wrestlers that they normally do not get to see.
  
  Cruiser, you say disband it, what would be your suggestion? Just curious.
• cruiser_96

  

  The sooner the mega tournament is conducted, the more shifting (weight-wise) will occur by the end of he year.
  
  Re: Disband - I would most likely be in favor independent. But I realize that a conference championship is a nice benchmark for the success of a program. So, I suppose, if I had to go with anything, I'd say something with 6 to 8 teams, but not 32 teams split into 4 divisions. No conference needs that many teams.
• newbie75

  I just looked over your tournament idea... That's not too shabby, very simple. The only issue that could come up is possible that say certain conferences might only have 3 or 4 kids in the weight. I like keeping the divisions together until possible placement. How would the criteria be for seeding? This is minor but all in all I love the idea. As a fan, you could get to see a lot of good central ohio wrestling in one location. And All-OCC would actually have some meaning.
• Cthelites

  Here's what I would like to see.
  fri night at 4pm each league has their 8man bracket touney to decide the true league champions...one problem solved!
  sat morning the top 3 in each league go into a 12 man bracket to decide the over all OCC champ! The other problem solved!
  you can have the 4-8 wrestle in a separate 16man bracket with rat tail or a pool crossover bracket if you want just so those other kids are getting matches.
  it would have to be in a huge space to accommodate everyone.
  i brought this up yrs ago to have each league have their own touney at separate locations then bring them all together for the champions brackets the next day but was told that you can't have satellite locations cause it would cost more points.
• Cthelites

  I know the big argument over this occ tourney idea is, "we already have this kind of tourney, it's the District".
  yes and no.
  if we have it early enough I don't think it would be a problem.
  i think this would do two things...one revenue...two exposure/interest.
  i think the newspaper would actually care a little about it.
  occ has an "it" factor with the casual observer and I'm speaking about students too.
• Cthelites

  Maybe Liberty could run this with their gym, field house and new wrestling facility.
  going to need at least 3 mats per league.
  #pipedream
• newbie75

  Cthelites
  I think two mats (8 mats) from each league would do. Another place with the size would def be the Fairgrounds. I know I have been a big push for something at the Fairgrounds but I thought it was always cool to go up there for the district basketball games. I think it'd be easy to set up and tear down pretty easy as well. Seats would not be a problem either. The only issue would be how people could see the Medina board.
• Tony Mead

  fairgrounds cost like 8000$ a day dosent it? I am not sure price but you are talking 2 days probably 3 unless they let us set up the night before. thats like 20k just to run a high school tourny that may generate 5k.
• the comet plex

  8000 a day? well what does the basketball make? Every time I have ever went to watch the basketball at the fairgrounds it has been empty.
• Cthelites

  I hate the cow barn!
  used to love it when they had under $2 frostys for the chill.
  another thing is the $5 parking fee.
  To be able to run the league tourneys in the amount of time for a fri start you'll need at least 3 mats but 4 would roll better.