The Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors met last Thursday morning in Columbus for its regularly scheduled May meeting. The following are highlights from the meeting. The complete set of meeting minutes will be posted at OHSAA.org.
- The Board approved the 2012-13 general sports regulations and the sport-by-sport regulations. Of note, the start date for football practice this fall is July 30 and all other fall sports begin practice on the first Monday in August, which is August 6.
Six Ohio Northern student/athletes were named All-Ohio Athletic Conference in softball for 2012 in voting conducted by the league's 10 head coaches.
Seniors Cassie Gaye and Kimi Blewett, sophomore Christin Miller and freshman Kelly Sheridan were all name First Team All-OAC, junior Abbey Bensing was named to the Second Team and senior Katie Cretin was named Honorable Mention All-Conference.
Gaye was second on the team with a .405 batting average and five home runs and was third with 29 RBI and 30 runs scored.
The No. 24-ranked Ohio Northern softball team received an at-large bid to the 2012 NCAA Division III Tournament.
The Polar Bears (26-11) received the No. 2 seed in the Alma (Mich.) Regional and will face seventh-seeded Penn State-Behrend (26-13) in the first round on Thursday at 4 pm.
Ohio Northern won its fourth consecutive Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season title with a 14-3 league record and finished runner-up at the OAC Tournament in Ada Friday and Saturday.
This also marks the fourth consecutive NCAA Tournamernt appearance for Ohio Northern.
The Ohio Northern women's tennis team advanced in the 2012 OAC Tournament following a 6-0 quarterfinal round win over Muskingum on Tuesday at University Courts.
The win moves the top-seeded Polar Bears to 20-4 on the season, while the Muskies end the 2011-12 campaign at 4-11.
Northern was able to get the victory outdoors even with the threat of rain moving into the area. ONU started with a sweep of doubles courts, as junior Christie Gales and sophomore Michelle Tuma won No. 1 doubles, 8-0.
John Rhodes has stepped down as head men's basketball coach at Ohio Northern University to take an assistant coaching position at NCAA Division I Duquesne of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Rhodes compiled a 39-41 record in his three seasons as head coach of the Polar Bears.
The search for a new head basketball coach is underway.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association will be adding a seventh tournament division in football beginning in 2013, Commissioner Daniel B. Ross has announced. The addition of a seventh division was approved by the OHSAA’s Board of Directors by a 6 to 3 vote during its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday.
