It’s Van Wert County hoops history

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

It’s a question that was asked many times on Saturday after Van Wert and Lincolnview won their respective district championships and a day after Crestview also won a district title – when’s the last time all three county basketball teams made it to regionals during the same season?

The answer is just what you think it is: never. Or at least, presumably never.

No one can seem to recall it happening. It’s going to happen this week, as Van Wert faces Jonathan Alder in the Division IV regional semifinals Wednesday night. The following night, Crestview and Lincolnview will square off in the Division VI regional semifinals. Those games will be played at Bowling Green State University’s Stroh Center.

One of the reasons is that for the longest time, Crestview and Lincolnview played in the same district, that meatgrinder Division IV Elida district. Even if Van Wert made it to the Division II regionals in the same season, there was literally no way Crestview and Lincolnview would both get there.

“You didn’t have a choice of going to a different pod of teams like we were able to do this year so we would meet up at the district finals at the latest,” Crestview head coach Doug Etzler said.

The concept of setting up the bracket district wide in pods is new to the Northwest District, but not to the rest of Ohio. The remaining three districts around the state have been doing it that way for years.

That change and expansion begs the question – is the OHSAA’s expansion to seven divisions actually a good thing? It depends on who you ask. If we’re being honest, many coaches, administrators, fans and media weren’t exactly thrilled with the idea when the decision was made to go from four to seven divisions. “It’s a money grab” was the most common complaint, along with “it’s too watered down now.” I don’t seem to recall anyone really asking for extra divisions, although there was a train of thought that maybe one extra division to address the disparity in Division I might not be a bad idea.

Etzler, who previously was the head coach at Teays Valley, which was a small Division I school at the time, was all for expanded divisions at the time. He admitted he wasn’t sure if three extra divisions wasn’t necessary but now there’s no question that the expansion has created something that was previously unheard of – what’s happened in Van Wert County is a prime example.

It appeared as though the main problems with the expansion were the fact that the OHSAA kind of just went ahead and did it while overlooking any opposition, and the fact that it forever changed the format of the state tournament. Prior to the expansion, it was a three day event, all at one location. Semifinal games the first two days, and four championship games on the third day. Last year’s state tournament was a disaster in the fact that semifinal games were played at various venues around the state, some better than others, before the finals were played in Dayton. It truly took away the atmosphere that made the state tournament special.

This year, the OHSAA has made some changes. Semifinal games will be played at UD Arena at Dayton and at nearby Wright State University. All championship games will be played at Dayton. However, as a fan, there is literally no way to take in the entire state tournament, semifinals and finals, because some games will be played simutaneously at the two different sites, and state championship games are staggered – not all on the same day. Plus, it’s a four day event.

Back to the original question though – is the expansion actually a good thing? In some respects, yes. It’s allowed regional matchups like Lincolnview and Crestview to happen and with Van Wert dropping to Division IV, it means the Cougars aren’t running into a team like Shawnee at districts. While not in the county, remember all the years that Wayne Trace would run into Ottawa-Glandorf? Now, schools like that are separated by a division or two.

Just listen to the buzz among basketball fans in Van Wert County – it seems that everyone is truly thrilled to have all three teams in their respective Sweet 16. It also amps up Thursday night’s Crestview vs. Lincolnview game because one of them is guaranteed to be playing for a spot at next week’s state tournament.

“It’s pretty cool and pretty special for the people of Van Wert County to be able to go through this,” Lincolnview head coach Brett Hammons said. “Credit coach Best and coach Etzler for the jobs they’ve done with their teams.”

“It shows how good Van Wert County basketball is,” Etzler said.

“I think it’s awesome,” Van Wert head coach Jeremy Best said. “Some of it is the different format with the (seven) divisions but if that’s the design and if that’s what it’s supposed to do to get more teams to experience this then I’m obviously all for it. People say its watered down, people say it’s not necessary but I’ve experienced from the other end too when there were only four divisions. I don’t care how many there are when you get an opportunity to do this, it’s special.”

There are other stories of teams around the Northwest District advancing to regionals for the first time in decades, or ever. So again, from that angle, expansion appears to be a good thing.

What’s going to happen this week? Only time will tell, but I say enjoy the ride. Like the new format or not, it’s a new part of Van Wert County basketball history.