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Oakwood AD to have key voice on OHSAA panel

Oakwood High School Athletic Director Mark Hughes, checking in on a girls' volleyball game, has been appointed to the Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors, the highest decision-making body affecting high school sports in Ohio.

Teesha McClam Oakwood High School Athletic Director Mark Hughes, checking in on a girls' volleyball game, has been appointed to the Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors, the highest decision-making body affecting high school sports in Ohio.

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By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer 8:46 PM Saturday, October 1, 2011

Five years ago, after more than a decade as the Oakwood High School athletic director, Mark Hughes ran for his first Ohio High School Athletic Association office, on the Southwest District board.

“I love high school sports,” he said, “and I wanted to get involved.”

Now Hughes will have an even greater involvement in decisions affecting more than 800 OHSAA member schools. The 17th--year Oakwood athletic director is serving the first of a two-year term on the OHSAA Board of Directors, the highest decision-making body in the organization.

Through the Board of Directors rotation, the Southwest District is responsible for a representative from a Class AA school on this two-year rotation. The district board selected Hughes to fill that seat, one of 11 on the board.

A graduate of Gahanna Lincoln High School, Hughes served as softball coach, assistant athletic director and athletic director at his alma mater for 10 years before coming to Oakwood in 1995. He sat down recently to discuss issues facing the board and his thoughts on high school athletics.

Q: One of the most-watched issues last year was competitive balance. Do you expect to deal with it this year?

A: Last year the board dealt with competitive balance, and the referendum was up and was voted down. That’s going to be another big issue this year for our board. There has been a principal survey done to gather information on what principals want from competitive balance. That information has gone back to the original committee. That committee will then come up with maybe another alternative or a similar plan, and then the board will probably, I would think, be asked to put out another plan next year for the membership to vote on.

Q: What are your thoughts on the topic?

A: The vote was really close, so it looks like a lot of the state wants something to be done. I think if we’re able to work in something with Division I and the discrepancy of enrollment as well as a competitive balance plan, I think that’s what the membership wants.

Q: What would you like to see happen?

A: (The OHSAA) has been in existence for over 100 years, and it’s been one state championship, so I guess I’d like to see that continue if we can come up with a competitive balance plan that everybody will approve. It would be nice to keep the tournaments together.

Q: Any other major topics you expect the board to address?

A: Last year I know the board talked about looking at some of the offseason regulations, the restrictions placed on athletes and coaches (in how often they can work together). Nothing was changed, but I think that may be something we look at.

Q: What major changes are happening with high school sports in general?

A: With finances and transportation budgets, I could see schools limiting how far they travel to games and trying to save money that way. Also, I hope it never happens, but where schools would just give up sports and go to a club situation. That’s another issue we’re facing, outside sports versus high school sports. Sometimes kids get pressured to play club sports and not play for their high school. I’m a big believer in high school sports, I love high school sports, and I would hate to see that happen. I think kids love playing in their school colors and uniforms and playing in front of their peers. I hope that never happens, but I see it being more and more of an issue.

Q: Area leagues have seen some major changes in the past two decades. What do you think about league movement?

A: I was involved with the Ohio Capital Conference in Columbus (while at Gahanna Lincoln). I think when I left there in ’95 there were 24 schools, and now there are 32, so it’s a big Division I conference. I came to the (Southwestern Buckeye League), and there were 10 schools. After a few years here I started looking at the discrepancy in enrollment between the schools, and on any given Friday night at a football game, if you just looked at the schedule, you could pretty much name the score. You just knew. We had so many lopsided games, mainly in football. So we started talking in the late ’90s about going to a two-division format, which would require some expansion, so we brought in two schools, Milton-Union and Waynesville, and went to big-school and small-school divisions.

That was just great. It created more equal opportunities for a lot kids. The sense now in the small-school division was they could win a championship. A few years later, we brought in Franklin and Monroe, kept the basic format, and now we have two seven-team divisions. I think if you ask the small schools, they would say it’s been good for them. We can still keep some of the natural rivalries, because the 10-team conference had been that way for a long time, so there were some main rivalries, and they can continue to play.

I think the large conferences give schools a lot of flexibility in scheduling. In our situation, it allowed some of the larger schools to schedule some teams they couldn’t play before because they were locked in the league. It has given us some options in some sports.

Contact this reporter  at(937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.

OHSAA Board  of Directors:

President: Tony Mantell, superintendent, Clay Local School District, Portsmouth

Vice President: John Ault, athletic administrator, Beloit West Branch High School

Bill Axe, assistant principal/athletic administrator, Toledo Central Catholic High School

Ron Bond, principal, Dover Middle School

Tom Farbizo, athletic administrator, New Philadelphia City Schools

Mark Hughes, director of athletics and student activities, Oakwood High School

Troy McIntosh, assistant superintendent, Worthington Christian Schools

Jenny Penn, athletic administrator, Latham Western High School

Phil Stevens, athletic administrator, Warrensville Heights High School

Tim Erickson, athletic administrator, Toledo Ottawa Hills High School*