The latter were held at neutral sites around the state a week before the finals, a break from the traditional format that saw teams from around the state congregate in one site for all of the semifinals and finals.
That was necessitated by an expansion from four to seven divisions.
“We looked at several options on how to conduct this year’s state tournament with seven divisions because UD Arena is not available to host all 21 games,” OHSAA executive director Doug Ute said in a news release announcing the OHSAA board of directors had approved restoring the Final Four. “We settled on the football model with the state semifinals held on the weekend prior to the state finals.
“The feedback we received from the coaches at this year’s state tournament led us to make this proposal to the board to go back to the traditional final four model, which will require additional sites. There are some great options in that area and we are already working on those details.”
Having the final four at multiple sites has precedent in other sports, including girls volleyball last fall.
While Wright State hosted all seven finals at the Nutter Center, semifinals were held at Butler, Northmont and Fairmont.
Baseball will undergo a similar evolution this spring with semifinals and finals split between Canal Park in Akron and Thurman Munson Stadium in Canton June 12-15.
Additionally, football’s championship game weekend was split among two cities in Stark County — Canton and Akron — for many years.
The OHSAA did not include any potential sites, but Fairmont director of athletics Chris Weaver told the Dayton Daily News the school is open to being one.
“I have not heard from the OHSAA (yet) on their level of interest to use Trent Arena as a host site for the boys or girls state tournaments,” Weaver said in an email. “I will say, if/when that phone call comes, we will absolutely be open to that conversation!”
Butler AD Jordan Shumaker had a similar reaction.
“I think that all of the volleyball schools enjoyed all being in the same area even if they weren’t able to play in the same gym, and it did keep kind of the final four atmosphere for teams,” he said by phone. “So I think that was good. And if we’re lucky enough to be able to host some of those games, we always enjoy hosting things for OHSAA.
“We enjoy that partnership that we have with them, and it’s great for our community, and we think that we’re a good partner for them as well.”
The specific state tournament schedule and additional sites will be announced at a later date according to the OHSAA.
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