Figured I might as well post this here, in case anyone finds it interesting...
Celina played its 800th game in school history in week 2 when it lost to Defiance 42-7. Celina’s record during those 800 games was 394-379-27 (50.9%).
Although Defiance has been over .500 in WBL play for a while now, it just now moved to over .500 vs. current WBL teams all-time, including before joining the WBL. Defiance is now 204-203-5 in that statistic.
Elida broke a 13-game losing streak against Defiance.
One year after its overall record dropped to .500, Elida remains at .500 with its 5-5 record this year. Elida has not had an overall losing record since 1945.
Elida broke a 20-game losing streak in week 1 of this year, and a 23-game WBL losing streak with its week 7 42-7 win over Bath. This was also the 3rd out of the last 8 years that Elida ended a league losing streak of 20 or more games.
O-G set a new school record for most wins in a season, with 11. It was also the most games it has ever played in a season (14), beating last year’s 13 by one game.
O-G also finishes with a playoff record above .500 (9-8, 52.9%), it previously had a winning playoff record after its 1st and 3rd playoff games.
O-G is the 7th WBL school to win its region, only Elida, Shawnee, and Wapak have not advanced to a state semifinal.
Shawnee has finished no worse than tied for 2nd place in each of the last four years, but has yet to make the playoffs in those years!
Tied for 4th was St. Marys’ lowest league finish since 6th in 1999 – the last losing record it had (4-5).
St. Marys finished its 2nd best decade ever, at 75.7%, 0.2 percentage points ahead of the 90s.
St. Marys now has a tie between its most-defeated team in WBL play – Celina and Kenton both at 47. Wapak is one behind at 46. Wapak still remains 1st overall though, at 64 wins.
On the other side, Van Wert moved into a tie with Wapak for the school that has defeated St. Marys the most times overall – 34 times. No one else is even close, as Celina is 3rd with 25 wins against St. Marys.
Van Wert completed its first winning league record since 2004, both at 5-4. It was also the first time Van Wert finished in the top half of the league since 2004, being tied for 4th this year.
Van Wert passed Wapak for 2nd most wins in WBL history, with 288. That’s one ahead of Wapak. But there is a discrepancy in sources, so it’s tough to tell for sure.
Kenton tied Bath, Defiance, and O-G for the 2nd most times being ranked at the end of a season – 4. St. Marys is well out in front with 12.
Kenton tied Celina for 4th most WBL titles, with 7. Kenton also tied Bath for 4th most undefeated WBL seasons, with 4. Finally, Kenton also tied Celina for 4th most winning WBL seasons ever, with 31. In this statistic, Shawnee also tied Bellefontaine for 9th with 16 seasons. This is one of the few stats in which former WBL members are still above current members.
Kenton and O-G moved out of a tie with Defiance, into a tie for 3rd for most playoff appearances, with 8. This is one behind Bath for 2nd place.
Kenton moved past Celina and Wapak, into 8th place, on the frequency of title wins per seasons ratio.
In the winning seasons ratio (in WBL play), Defiance moved ahead of Bath for 4th place, 54.0%-52.3%. Meanwhile, O-G passed Kenton for 7th place on this list (46.5%-45.6%). This might seem odd at first, but remember, O-G has many fewer years in the WBL than Kenton, so its percentage fluctuates more.
Meanwhile, Bath relinquished its record of least amount of last place league finish. With its tie for last this year, Bath has now finished in last place 3 times, tying Bluffton and St. Marys for the least amount of last place finishes. Wapak also moved into a tie for 4th most last place finishes, tied now with Defiance and Elida.
Kenton passed Bath for 2nd most playoff games, with 21, while O-G passed Defiance for 4th, with 17.
O-G moved past Bath into 6th for the best playoff wins per appearance ratio. The others below Bath are all under 1.00.
With O-G moving over .500 in its playoff record, seven WBL schools currently have winning playoff records – the most ever at one time. Actually, I would guess very few leagues have as many as seven teams with winning playoff records.
O-G dropped behind Bath into 6th place for playoff winning percentage against ranked teams. The WBL went 0-2 against ranked teams this year, and 4-0 against unranked teams. 2009 was the first year since 1994 that no WBL team beat a ranked team in the playoffs when multiple WBL teams also made the playoffs (no WBL team beat a ranked team in 2007 either, but only one WBL team made the playoffs).
Celina’s 41-40 double overtime win over Bath in week 9 was the first overtime game in the WBL since week 7 of 2007 when Celina also beat Bath 22-21. Bath also played in overtime that year against Allen East. The last multiple overtime WBL game was Wapak over Bellefontaine 27-20 in 2005. The last multiple overtime WBL game was all the way back in week 10 of 2003, when a 2-7 Van Wert team shocked 7-2 Bath 20-17 in 3 overtimes.
We can close the book on the 2000s (I don’t care what anyone says, I end the decades on the 9th year and start with the 0) as pretty parity-filled – at least in terms of title winners. In the decade, Kenton and St. Marys both finished with 4 titles, O-G 3, Defiance and Shawnee 2, and Wapak 1.
This was Kenton’s second time winning consecutive titles, and the 17th time overall. Some of those 17 times were more than two consecutive, though.
Kenton ended up tying St. Marys for the best WBL record of the decade, at 69-21. Kenton’s previous best finish in any decade was 4th best in the 1990s. St. Marys did finish ahead of Kenton though, for the highest average finishing place. In the only other change of position compared to last year, Van Wert passed Bath for 7th place in the decade.
Kenton and St. Marys’ 76.7% winning percentage ended up tied for the 4th best decade ever in WBL history. Defiance also finished at 71.1%, dropping behind Bath’s 1980s (it was above Bath’s 1980s before this year) into 8th place, but the 2000s still saw 3 of the top 8 best decades ever for these three schools. I previously mentioned the decade was parity-filled in terms of title winners, but as I mentioned in last year’s review, this winning percentage stat shows that there has been quite a gap for quite a while now, between the top few teams and the bottom few teams. So perhaps there isn’t quite as much parity when it comes to simply winning games.
Although Kenton and St. Marys’ 2000s winning percentage was 4th best ever, it ties for second in terms of most wins in a decade, with 69. St. Marys in the 1970s had 75 wins. Defiance finished tied for 5th with Bath’s 1980s, with 64 wins, and O-G squeaked into a tie for 10th most, with 59 wins, tying Wapak’s 1970s.
Not even a 4-5 record could save Elida from completing the worst entire decade in the history of the WBL. Elida was 11-79 in the 2000s, the second worst entire decade was Shawnee in the 1990s, which went 13-77.
Although the numbers are skewed from having less teams years ago, Kenton moved ahead of Celina in the average league finish, into 7th place. Shawnee also moved ahead of Coldwater for 11th place.
I probably should not mention this, because as I said, the numbers are skewed for the worse toward recent times, but Elida’s average finish of the 2000s (8.9) was the worst for an entire decade, and Bath also moved into a tie for 8th with 7.0, while Celina just moved into a tie for 10th with 6.9. Yes, the numbers are skewed compared to the 40s-70s, but what it does do is reinforce the comment about a select few teams dominating the bottom teams of the league, for the entire decade, basically.
Other decade notables: Defiance, Kenton, and O-G all had their best decade in terms of winning percentage, while Bath, Elida, and Wapak all had their worst. Defiance, Kenton, O-G, and Shawnee all had their best decade in terms of total wins, while Elida had its worst. Kenton had its best decade in terms of average finish, while Bath, Celina, Elida, Van Wert, and Wapak all had their worst. But remember, the numbers are skewed in the negative toward recent decades.
This is the 4th consecutive decade (its entire membership) that Defiance has improved its record in the WBL.
This is the second year ever that there has been two different three way ties for any position in the final standings. The other year was 1986.
Celina set a new school record for most consecutive losing seasons, with 9. The previous long streak was 8, from 1952-1959. It also broke a tie with Defiance and Van Wert for the 4th longest streak of losing seasons.
While we’re talking about season winning streaks, Defiance broke a tie with Wapak for 2nd most, with 14. Wapak’s streak was from 1969-1981.
Even though Shawnee has now played 42 seasons in the WBL, it just completed its second calendar decade!