MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

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MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by formerfcfan »

I'm down to talk about this, but I think it should have its own thread (rather than being a meta-subject on pfloyd's thread.)
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bman [b wrote:Post #1[/b] post_id=1609915 time=1510382334 user_id=266]New Hope applied to the OHSAA, but no dice from what I was told.
Snowman [b wrote:Post 2[/b] post_id=1610920 time=1510595866 user_id=3145]
That's interesting about New Hope. I'm from Central Ohio and have a relative who plays in the MOCAL (most MOCAL teams play New Hope). I heard New Hope was trying to get into the MOCAL after they made it to OHSAA, but that most MOCAL teams don't want to drive 1+ hour to get there. The Statesmen have also developed a bit of a reputation among Central District teams as a bit obnoxious and not exactly the most friendly Christian school out there.

For being less than 5 years into having a high school, they sure are tough. This senior class has been dominating light and medium competition since middle school, so I'm curious to see how they do against a really good D3 Bishop Ready.

Also, someone mentioned Harvest Prep as a tough D4 school. That they were, but they are now a tough D3 school thanks to competitive balance. They had so many transfers that they might actually jump up to D2 next season (but I'm sure they've corrected their previous recruiting issues :roll: )
bman [b wrote:Post 3[/b]post_id=1610949 time=1510603466 user_id=266]

I believe the problem is they only offer a few sports - basketball, co-ed soccer and volleyball and just started cross country and track last season. OHSAA wants schools to have a minimum number of sports before they join.

New Hope would be a good fit for the Mid-State League's Cardinal Division, but they are full.
Snowman [b wrote:Post 4[/b]post_id=1611186 time=1510666994 user_id=3145]


Good call! I wouldn't be shocked if Wellington isn't in that division for long. That's a long drive for most of their games and I would assume that they would be heavy favorites in most of their games (other than maybe Harvest Prep). Maybe if them or Prep ever move then New Hope would hop in.
formerfcfan [b wrote:Post 5[/b] post_id=1611214 time=1510673323 user_id=132]

Sorry, but I don’t agree. Their athletics are awful and their facilities are horrendous. It would just make a complete joke of the MSL for them to come in.

Additionally, one of the hiccups with New Hope Christian is often times they have students that are either homeschooled or intentionally held back for whatever reason. That means they have freshmen who can be 16, seniors who can be 19. Now, while OHSAA allows kids to play until they’re 20, the population of families that support New Hope (by virtue of sending their kids there) largely believe kids should start later - not on time, or sooner. With NHC participating in the Christian school equivalent of the OHSAA (I forget what it’s called), that isn’t an issue because that consortium has looser eligibility rules.


A friend of mine coached 7th grade girls basketball for Fisher (St. Mary’s) a few years ago. Because it was hard to find games, given that the majority of the MSL-Cardinal only had combined 7th and 8th grade teams (therefore they’d play the 8th grade team) they took New Hope on to fill a spot. The New Hope team was a 6th, 7th, and 8th grade combined team. Three grades. And they only had eight girls across those three grades playing. SM’s beat them 27-4, and, according to my buddy, their coach was a complete jerk.

They should just do the MOCAL.
Snowman [b wrote:Post 6[/b] post_id=1611219 time=1510674622 user_id=3145]


I don't want to start a squabble, but I thought their gym was nice. Yes the building is attached to the church, but I would hardly call the facilities "horrendous."

I do agree that I don't think they would be a great fit right now. They would probably fit with the MOCAL based on size and lack of basic sports (like baseball and not co-ed soccer). They need to show some consistency and build their program just like all new schools, but in 5-10 years if they grow I'd think they would have more sports teams and be in a much better spot. So if the situation is re-evaluated and maybe Wellington and or Harvest Prep leaves for a more competitive conference, I would think New Hope would be a nice addition.

As far as basketball goes, I'd be willing to bet they would finish in the top 5 of the D4 Central District tournament if they were OHSAA. They went 22-3 last year and 17-6 the year before, playing decent competition for their size. I suppose it could be possible that it's just a great senior class and that the other sports aren't up to snuff, but at least with basketball it seems like they've really done well to start their high school resume.
formerfcfan [b wrote:Post 7[/b] post_id=1611222 time=1510675631 user_id=132]
I just added more to my post. Gym is okay, but outdoor facilities aren’t great.

The main issue for them competitively is how well, and how sustainable, athletics are in terms of OHSAA age eligibility as well as numbers. Frankly, I dont think a school like FC or GCC has any interest in taking them on board.
Snowman [b wrote:Post 8[/b] post_id=1611228 time=1510677448 user_id=3145]
^Very good points. I have not been to the outdoor facilities so I'm sure you're absolutely right.

And that's very true on sustainability. Several good years from one sport does not make them a viable school for a well-established conference. These first few years they definitely have pumped up their basketball team with homeschoolers. I know two years ago they had 3 seniors on a team when the school didn't even have a senior class. Undoubtedly that has helped their basketball team.

And as someone associated with the MOCAL, I definitely agree that they are well suited for the MOCAL (only 2 or 3 teams have separate 7th and 8th grade basketball teams). It doesn't seem like the MOCAL wants them either based on travel time and that there seems to be an attitude issue among many of their players/coaches. Maybe they would be better off going South and East instead of trying to head North.


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by formerfcfan »

Snowman,

I honestly think, with New Hope Christian, that they'd rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond. I have nothing against Christian schools, but I saw the development and advent of Fairfield Christian's athletics over the past 10 years. While FCA's girls athletics programs are superb, it was the other way around 5-7 years ago: mediocre girls programs, but good boys programs. FCA, and to a certain extent Grove City Christian, were big fish in a small pond back in the MOCAL. FCA moved into the MSL-Cardinal thinking that they'd become a bigger fish in a bigger pond. It became true for girls volleyball and girls basketball, but their baseball program is something like 10-30 (.250) in league play (and eight of those wins are against hapless Harvest Prep.) FCA hasn't made it out of districts for basketball since the move to the MSL Cardinal, and absent the 13-14 school year (Steven Carpenter's senior year) where they came within like five points of beating HPS twice (great games!) they have not been a title contender when they should've been (anyone remember the year that Fisher beat FCA twice?!?) FCA's football program is in dire straits also. I think the New Hope people have seen what happened to FCA, who came in thinking they were going to wreck everyone, and realize that league play is a lot harder than expected.

I too am aware of the reputation New Hope Christian has and the reason why that reputation exists, but I caution that it's generally less so the kids and 100% more so the parents, coaches (who are often parents) and the administrators of the church that New Hope is tied into. The cornerstone of New Hope's athletics is the fact that many of the families have no trust or interest in their local public schooling option (Teays Valley, Circleville.) This is why they have homeschoolers play sports and how they accrue a few more students every year to compliment an already low student population. If Fairfield Christian, on a scale of 1 to 10 measuring "conservatism and Christian education", was a 4, then New Hope would be a 9.5. I have nothing against Christian folk, conservatives, or conservative Christian folk, but the parents that are paying tuition specifically for a school that doesn't offer a whole lot of extracurricular activities or course options are doing so because of a very strong conviction in their principles and beliefs. Consequently, they're going to be incredibly obnoxious and rude about winning and losing (because its the group mentality of 'us' versus 'them.' The year they beat Fisher in a five period scrimmage, they were celebrating about a 'victory' as if an actual game was played.) Although... that is not a problem specific to New Hope Christian. I'm sure there have been times in the past where the same could be said for a Mansfield St. Peter's or, at one point, Fairfield Christian.

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The Big 10 didn't get any better in the sports "people care about", football and basketball, when they added Rutgers. I'm a subscriber to the philosophy that leagues should only reconfigure if it is either necessary, or if it means a net 'gain.' I don't think adding New Hope Christian would be necessary, nor would it be a net gain... be it a 7-team MSL Cardinal or 8-team MSL Cardinal we're talking about. Maybe if New Hope could prove to be sustainable athletically along OHSAA's eligibility and guidelines, and could prove themselves to be competitive, then maybe they'd make a good candidate for the MSL in 10-15 years. However, I think their prospects of attaining either status are dismal. You know the phrase "addition by subtraction", right? Well, if there were such a thing as "subtraction by addition", I think adding New Hope to the MSL-Cardinal (at least this soon, with New Hope in the current state it is in) would be the prime example. To add a school that has such trouble fielding programs without kids that are held back, or homeschoolers, would undermine the league.

Now... maybe fans of other MSL-Cardinal schools feel differently. My opinions on this matter come from both my personal experiences and what I know about the topic. I graduated from Fisher in the 2000's. When I was in school, we played schools such as West Jefferson, Liberty Union, Licking Heights, and Grandview Heights. Now, its not realistic to expect FC to be competing with Licking Heights anymore, but in the vast majority of sports (baseball, soccer, tennis, track and field, golf, and - except for GH - basketball ) it would still make sense for FC to play with the other three schools I mentioned. When I was there, we won more than we lost against those three in the sports I mentioned. I have cousins that played for FC back when our part of the MSL was Amanda, Fisher, LU, Bloom-Carroll, FU, (among others) and when our part of the MSL later became Fisher, Heath, Granville, New Albany and L Heights (et al.) One of the sports I played at Fisher was tennis, and we played MSL-Buckeye schools like BC, TV, Circleville and Hamilton Twp as a part of our league play. FC alumni around my time & a little bit before me, and myself included, took tremendous pride in the fact we ran with the bigger dogs and would beat them. From 1995 to 2007, Fisher won 10 of 13 MSL-Cardinal league titles in basketball (what we call "the decade of dominance.") The day that the MSL realigned in 2013 was a day that still upsets me a tad. Not playing Liberty Union anymore, no more West Jefferson in baseball, no more Grandview in soccer and (back then, basketball)... in favor of taking on Grove City Christian and Fairfield Christian (two schools who, while having good athletics of recent, were at the time programs that weren't very established at the high school level.) And then we took on Rosecrans (whom the hourglass is running out on) and Wellington (school that's not really known for prowess in the "popular" sports, until recently in basketball.) Maybe I'm living in the past too much, but it is just a little difficult to accept the fact that the school I took tremendous pride in playing for, and the league I played in, is now in a race to the bottom. Instead of playing UP, everyone is complacent with taking on programs that they think they can beat.


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by Chieftain2009 »

I think that eventually, New Hope might be a good fit in the MSL Cardinal, but not right now. All I know about them is what I've read on here. The MSL Cardinal is pretty tough in some sports, especially in recent years. Having been a former track coach at FCA for three years, recently, I have some insight within the conference.


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by formerfcfan »

I talked to an MSL AD (not in the Cardinal) on who the MSL schools might be interested in putting into the Cardinal should a school fall out of the current 8-team set up. I asked him about New Hope and he said it was a possibility, but he speculated that Cristo Rey (which is the Catholic school in Downtown Columbus that opened a few years ago) was going to have a stronger profile for consideration into said hypothetical opening. They stand as a D3 school enrollment wise and, unlike New Hope Christian (who serves a less densely populated, rural sea) they are likely to be at, or near, 80% capacity consistently because of the voucher program for students living in Columbus City schools.

He did note that at current, everyone seems to either be content with the current league structure or reluctant to decide on a change given that we’re only in the first year of the current MSL-Cardinal.


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by formerfcfan »

Chieftain2009 wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 1:30 pm I think that eventually, New Hope might be a good fit in the MSL Cardinal, but not right now. All I know about them is what I've read on here. The MSL Cardinal is pretty tough in some sports, especially in recent years. Having been a former track coach at FCA for three years, recently, I have some insight within the conference.
Thanks for sharing! I wasn’t trying to be hypercritical or dismissive of Fairfield Christian, just to clarify. What I was getting at is there were a lot of expectations that FCA would be the best athletics school in the Cardinal coming in back in 2013 b/c of their football and basketball at the time. It was a perfect time for FCA to become “big brother” in Lancaster, and it never happened. That’s why I’m thinking New Hope may not even want to join the MSL-Cardinal, because their current athletics are a fraction of the competitiveness that FCA’s was five years ago. Also, New Hope has lost out on Pickaway County kids to FCA for both academic and sports reasons (football being one of them.) FCA and New Hope usually play as a schedule filler for varsity basketball, but if they played in the same league I could truly see FCA make a bigger animus toward New Hope than they do FC because of the overlap in students that both schools compete for.



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And yes, New Hope was not granted OHSAA membership. The only schools OHSAA membership changes this year were Cristo Rey (add), West Clermont (add), Kenmore-Garfield (add); Fostoria St Wendelin (closed), Amelia and Glen Este (consolidated into WC.)


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by Chieftain2009 »

formerfcfan wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 1:57 pm
Chieftain2009 wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 1:30 pm I think that eventually, New Hope might be a good fit in the MSL Cardinal, but not right now. All I know about them is what I've read on here. The MSL Cardinal is pretty tough in some sports, especially in recent years. Having been a former track coach at FCA for three years, recently, I have some insight within the conference.
Thanks for sharing! I wasn’t trying to be hypercritical or dismissive of Fairfield Christian, just to clarify. What I was getting at is there were a lot of expectations that FCA would be the best athletics school in the Cardinal coming in back in 2013 b/c of their football and basketball at the time. It was a perfect time for FCA to become “big brother” in Lancaster, and it never happened. That’s why I’m thinking New Hope may not even want to join the MSL-Cardinal, because their current athletics are a fraction of the competitiveness that FCA’s was five years ago. Also, New Hope has lost out on Pickaway County kids to FCA for both academic and sports reasons (football being one of them.) FCA and New Hope usually play as a schedule filler for varsity basketball, but if they played in the same league I could truly see FCA make a bigger animus toward New Hope than they do FC because of the overlap in students that both schools compete for.
Oh, I understood what you were saying. I didn't take that as any type of slander toward FCA. Fairfield Christian has had a lot of success within the Cardinal and the Central District, but they haven't been completely dominant. At schools like FCA, New Hope and Fisher, it can be difficult to keep enrollment numbers up at times, I think that is what has happened at FCA with their football program this year. The graduating class of seniors last year was so dominant in many sports, and they all graduated at the same time. I definitely think that the MSL-Cardinal is a very solid conference, and wouldn't really consider adding to the conference, at least right now.


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by Snowman »

Excellent post formerfcfan. I really don't have much to add to that! I'm relatively new to the Central Ohio region so I wasn't aware of much of that history from the 90s to about 2010. As my knowledge is mostly limited to the MOCAL due to connections of someone I know playing in the conference, I don't know much other than that conference and some of the teams that they play out of conference, which often includes Cardinal teams.

I know in the 2000s decade Tree of Life dominated the MOCAL until the early 2010s when Fairfield Christian and Grove City Christian finally caught up. As soon as they made things competitive, both of those teams bolted to the MSL - Cardinal, I'm assuming for football.

While GCC continues to grow (almost D3 now in basketball), FCA has really shrunk in recent years. I checked their boys enrollment figures and it went from in the 70s a few years ago to in the 40s this year. Maybe it's just a swoon but it seems they aren't the only private schools to lose numbers recently (I think Fisher Catholic and Newark Catholic have also seen decreases over the last few years). Any chance you could see FCA heading back to the MOCAL if their enrollment keeps going down, they no longer have football, and the division seems to be going back to some of the bigger small schools (like Wellington and Rosecrans)? I guess it's possible that FCA and New Hope could both be part of the MOCAL in 5-10 years. Or do you think FCA is staying in the Cardinal for good?


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by formerfcfan »

Chieftain2009 can give a more informed answer regarding FCA, but I think they’re here to stay. You can’t beat driving to FC, MP, BU, and HPS compared to Delaware, Granville, Gahanna and Northside Christians. I suggest that it also helps the visibility of the school. The FCA people are always more than willing to smile wide and click “share” when they beat FC in girls volleyball or basketball (especially since by playing in-league, they can do it twice a season.) Also, their athletics office probably makes buku amounts of gate revenue now compared to the MOCAL. That isn’t to say “the MOCAL doesn’t travel”, but FCA v FC or FCA v BU is naturally going to draw more fans out from not just the respective schools, but the community at large.

I also think they probably really like playing in the facilities of the MSL schools, a LOT. I’ve been to some MOCAL places, and they aren’t bad (I like Delaware Christian’s a lot), but the MSL-Cardinal has some grade A+ awesome facilities for how small the schools are. HP’s “The Cave” is an awesome place to play hoops in, and their football field is great; FC has awesome baseball and softball diamonds, a GREAT gymnasium and plays at one of the nicest football facilities (grass field aside) in Central OH; BU has a nice gym; Wellington and Rosecrans have awesome basketball cages and GCC has a tremendous outdoor sports facility.

As for enrollment: I think the boy to girl ratio at FCA is closer to 3:7 than it is 4:6. It’s sort of “out of whack.” Fisher had 317 students grades 9-12 in May 2008. It became 240 in May 2011, 205 in May 2013, and 166(!) in May 2016. In spite of the drop, FC always comes ready to play and has the highest athletics participation rate across the Cardinal schools (the next closest is a close one between FCA and BU.) Wellington and GCC are much bigger than FC, and FC is about 35% larger than Rosecrans.


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Wanna earn some extra credit? Check out this article that was published in the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette in 2013. It really is a great article that explains why FC isn’t the same school it was athletically 10 years ago: https://www.google.com/amp/usatodayhss. ... l-deck/amp


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by Chieftain2009 »

I have never heard any FCA people or anything about FCA ever wanting to leave the Cardinal. They'd have no reason to. As formerfcfan mentioned, the travel times are amazing! 3 schools within 20 minutes? Can't beat that. FCA competes well in most of the sports, and speaking as someone who coached there, I thoroughly enjoyed competing against the other schools in the conference. Like I said, I don't see FCA going anywhere. At private, faith-based schools, especially the smaller ones, enrollment fluctuates regularly, I'm the sure the current enrollment isn't something to be too worried about.


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by Snowman »

Thanks for the feedback guys! All I really follow is boys basketball and a little baseball, so I'm not sure how competitive the other sports are. And like you've both pointed out, small private schools have fluctuating enrollment so I'm sure they'll bounce back.

It's hard for me to imagine how competitive the conference can be in the future with Wellington and Harvest Prep playing with stacked decks every year. Small private schools like FCA and FC do well for their size, but when HP has 3 or 4 college players on their team every year it's an uphill battle. If nothing else, it should prepare them for the tournament now that those schools got bumped up a division for competitive balance.

And that article makes total sense formerfcfan. I'm seeing lots of that in the MOCAL too as nearly every school has had trouble keeping numbers up. I think the economy has alot to do with it.


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by formerfcfan »

Coach Hooper, complimented by Craig Carpenter (Steven Carpenter's father, also an administrator at the school for a while now) has crafted a strong program at FCA. The big issue for them is having the talent... and keeping it.

FC has had 30 kids playing in the program for the past five years. The big issue is the lack of consistency in coaching. Eight coaches in nine years, or something like that (I keep losing count.) Shawn Brown, who had assistant roles at Watkins Memorial and Bloom-Carroll (and all in all is a guy well regarded in some local basketball circles) is the new coach at Fisher. From what I understand, the offseason has been as good as it possibly could be. With such a small student body, the vast majority of his kids were playing football, golf, or soccer. I think the Irish are going to have a slow start and probably will be a 'second half of the season' type of a team: Saffell broke his ankle week 3 in football, Turner (6'3 who earned a chunk of varsity minutes last year as a sophomore) broke his arm in that same game; the roster posted on ArbiterLive.com lists the two transfers they're expecting to be eligible the second half of the season (a 6'3 post from LU that lettered as a sophomore & a guard from New Lexington.) I don't expect the "additions" to blow the league away, but they'll provide a little bit more depth and competition in practice. They also have a couple promising freshmen. I think when everyone is able to play, they'll have a team that come District play might be stronger than previous years.

MP should have a better year than in recent memory. Am thinking that Berne is going to be wayyyyy down.

Districts: Can't really count out any of the KMAC (Know-Morrow Athletic Conference) schools in East Knox, Danville, Centerburg, and Cardington. Of those four, Centerburg may have the most talent (but a little unsure about the coaching, based on his track record at Fairfield Union); Danville I believe should have some height and athleticism; Cardington I believe did well-ish last year. East Knox I believe has a new coach and might struggle.


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Snowman wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:07 am Thanks for the feedback guys! All I really follow is boys basketball and a little baseball, so I'm not sure how competitive the other sports are. And like you've both pointed out, small private schools have fluctuating enrollment so I'm sure they'll bounce back.

It's hard for me to imagine how competitive the conference can be in the future with Wellington and Harvest Prep playing with stacked decks every year. Small private schools like FCA and FC do well for their size, but when HP has 3 or 4 college players on their team every year it's an uphill battle. If nothing else, it should prepare them for the tournament now that those schools got bumped up a division for competitive balance.
I want to say it was the 2014-2015 year that five of the MSL Cardinal schools were in the top eight or nine of the seeding (the others being Africentric, Newark Catholic, Tree of Life and maybe Wellington?)

The way I look at it, iron sharpens iron. Wellington has a good AD and has always had a great tradition of having knowledgeable people in the athletics office when it comes to OHSAA's rules and what is acceptable; what's not. Not that you implied anything seedy, but I will also mention that its the current coach that most of the kids come to play for.

I hate to neglect Rosecrans, but half of the time I'm forgetting they're in the league. Maybe its because, in basketball, its easy to look at the hoops in the conference as a precursor to our district tournament. Tom Rock is a good coach. They always have shooters and kids that can buy into the program.

Back to competitive balance for a second, as much as I hate to say it, I'm sure those schools feel the same way toward other programs when it comes to the disparity in competition (except nothing suggests that schools like FCA, GCC and Fisher are stacking the deck in the sports where they reign supreme.)


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by formerfcfan »

Additionally, I must add how nice it is for there to be a discussion place for this league. I posted on JJHuddle under "The FC Fan", and we had great threads going for such a small league. I understand why JJ gutted the forums, but the timing was suboptimal. I wish it would've been announced way further in advance, and that the shutdown would've been after hoops season. I can name at least 10 guys from our posting consortium that I would've loved to have gotten contact info for so we could have coordinated a migration toward another site. And that goes for football, too (although I didn't mind there not being an MSL posting base when the FC football forfeitures came out this year. :oops: )


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by Snowman »

I'm right there with you on the JJHuddle board. There's this one and another for North Central Ohio and of course the big one over the whole state (that pretty much excludes anyone who posts Central District news), but I can't really find any active boards anywhere else.

East Knox is now D3. They just missed the mark this year. All I know is that they were a bottom 3 seed in Division 4 last year, so going D3 this year will be just brutal for their tournament game.

Cardington-Lincoln lost 8 of their top 9 players but their returning player is really good and they had a strong JV team last year. Danville is tall and usually is a tough out in the tournament. Centerburg lost Ross Ryan to Pickerington Central in addition to the new coach (as you mentioned) and I believe something like 6 of their top 8, but they are typically decent and were a solid Division 3 school last year so they'll be tough as well.

Otherwise it's just Ridgedale (awful last year and they lost their only 2 good players to graduation plus their coach) and a bunch of MOCAL schools who have struggled recently. In the last two years the only MOCAL schools to make it past Sectionals were Gahanna Christian last year (and their game was against a MOCAL opponent) and Shekinah Christian two years ago, but Shekinah wasn't even part of the conference yet. I'd have to think it'll be a MS-Cardinal team, Cardington, Danville, or Centerburg to make it to Regionals.

That's tough news about Saffell and the other injuries. Hopefully they can be back fairly soon.


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by formerfcfan »

Saffell is cleared to play for FC. Was told they had a horrid scrimmage against Reedsville Eastern, only to do a 180 and perform pretty well against Nelsonville-York.

Fairfield Christian is struggling from what I heard. So is Berne. Wellington is doing great.


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by Chieftain2009 »

formerfcfan wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2017 11:29 am Saffell is cleared to play for FC. Was told they had a horrid scrimmage against Reedsville Eastern, only to do a 180 and perform pretty well against Nelsonville-York.

Fairfield Christian is struggling from what I heard. So is Berne. Wellington is doing great.
The senior class Fairfield Christian had last year was good at most everything, so losing that class really hurt, plus the kid that transferred to FU last year hurt them. They have a great coaching staff, so once some more time is put in, they should be at least be able to win a few games.


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by formerfcfan »

First rodeo of games for the MSL 'eight.'

Berne Union 0-0 / Adena @ ZT, 12/2.
Bishop Rosecrans 0-1 / L 39-49 @ Shenandoah, 11/30.
Fairfield Christian 0-0 / @ Trimble, 12/2.
Fisher Catholic 0-0 / Crooksville, 12/1.
Grove City Christian 0-0 / @ Cardington-Lincoln, 12/5.
Harvest Prep 0-0 / Wellington, 12/9.
Millersport 0-1 / L 43-82 @ Liberty Union, 11/30.
Wellington 0-0 / Maumee Valley Country Day, 12/1.

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Predictions
Berne, L by 20
FCA, L by 10
Fisher, W by 5
GCC, W by 7
HP, W by 3
Wellington, W by 2.


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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by LaVarBall »

I saw Berne and Wellington won their openers, Fisher lost, but I can’t find a score for FCA vs Trimble. Anyone know that result?


formerfcfan
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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by formerfcfan »

Games Played on Saturday, December 9th
HP d. Wellington, 69-56
FC d. FCA, 58-41
GCC d. Rosecrans, 58-45
BU d. MP, 74-51


Snowman
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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by Snowman »

I think this last weekend gave us some clarity on the conference. No idea what transfers everyone has, but HP with a big win over Wellington sends a message not just for the conference title but also for a potential regional birth.

I still have no clue on Rosecrans so I don't know if this means GCC is back and as good as ever or if Rosecrans is just down from their reputable past. Either way, GCC also beat Cardington-Lincoln so I'd have to imagine they would be a potential top seed in the D4 tournament, especially once all of their inexperience guards get battle-tested.

Nice win for FC! When's the last time they beat FCA? I will add though that FCA needed something like 36 points from Collins to beat Granville Christian (a team with only 8 players) earlier in the week. BU looks better than I expected too, at least based on the scores.


formerfcfan
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Re: MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

Post by formerfcfan »

Fairfield Christian has an exceptional guard in Collins but they really don’t have much after him, I’m afraid to say. FCA is just in a talent stall currently. Next best player on the team is Clark, who is actually really talented but whose first sport is tennis (genuinely surprised he’s still playing basketball, since the kid plays on the USTA circuit in the summer and for LHS in the spring.) I was told their JV lost 55-17 to FC. That pretty much summarizes what FCA is up against, not a whole lot of hoopers - no pun intended - in the halls currently. The Conley kid (a PG) at FU, had he stayed at FCA, was so good that he actually might have made the difference in score against Fisher on Saturday night. No joke.

Last time FC d. FCA was 2015. That was the year FC beat FCA twice in upset fashion. FCA had 6’5 Dewese and 6’7 Gerhken (sp?) that year and two really good guards.


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Rosecrans might be somewhat down. I know they start at least one freshman. Tomlinson from GCC is the best big in the league, IMO.


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