Small schools

[trojandave]

Portsmouth HS is in a unique position in relation to this topic because back before 1970, PHS was the largest school in the SE district, now there are 4 schools in the OVC (Chesapeake, Gallia Academy, Ironton, and South Point) that are larger with just straight enrollment or adding in competitive balance. PHS doesn't have probably 1/4 of the enrollment (boys enrollment 165) that it used to have back when the city had a population of almost 40,000 around 1950. Now, the city's population is barely above 20,000 (20,226 2010 census).

When I graduated in 1975, PHS was a Class AAA school, but then just 3 years later, 1978, the school dropped to AA for the first time ever, and ironically won the 1978 AA state title over Cleveland Cathedral Latin. Portsmouth HS has been classified or re-classified 7 different times.....the big school Class AA before 1970, Class AAA from 1971-1977, Class AA from 1978-1987, Division 2 from 1988-2001, Division 3 in 2002, Division 2 in 2003, and since 2004 has been a D3 school. No school in the SE district can claim that many different classifications.

Probably the most impressive statistic I can present about Portsmouth basketball is that PHS is 16-11 all time in state tournament play, with 4 state titles and 4 state runnerups. Those 16 wins are the 4th most wins in the state tournament all time out of nearly 800 high schools. On top of that Portsmouth HS is the 10th winningest program in Ohio all time and #1 in the SE district, with currently 1,464 wins against 794 losses. The 37 district titles are 17 more than 2nd place Wheelersburg.

Portsmouth also has been in a bunch of leagues in its history. The SEOAL from its inception in 1925 to the late 20's, Southern Ohio League in the late 30's and early 40's, the Greater Ohio League from the mid 40's to the mid 70's, the Tri-State Athletic Conference from the late 70's to around 1980, the Ohio-Kentucky Athletic Conference from 1986-1993, and back in the SEOAL from 2007-2014, and now in the Ohio Valley Conference from 2015 to the present time.

Portsmouth is also unique in that it has 3 high schools within its corporation limits.......Portsmouth HS, Notre Dame, and Sciotoville Portsmouth East. Not too many cities of 20,000 in Ohio that have that. Two D4 schools and a D3 school.

[The Ghost of Swanker]

Some of these aren’t small schools...
Jackson and Portsmouth are far from villages

[Ironman92]

Some of these aren’t small schools...
Jackson and Portsmouth are far from villages

Hoopie wanted

[WonderNova]

Eastern Brown is literally in the middle of a corn field...nothing around but corn and some fresh water shrimp ponds down the street Eastern has had success with four girls' Final Fours,and One boys Final Four in basketball. There have been many track and cross-country success stories. Our first state track champion is now a Division I college track coach at Wichita State University, and another one of our state track qualifiers was NAIA track coach of the year at Mount Vernon I believe. We even have state qualifying marching and concert bands(with many athletes in both...contrary to stereotype). Heck we even have a WOrld Champion Odyssey of the Mind championship team. That being said Brown County is experiencing massive growth. I guess the 6th grade at EMS has about 130 students, and the Lake Waynoka neighborhood is experiencing growth that is unprecedented. A's on the state report cards are displayed in banners all over the campus. EHS is the western-most school in the southeast I think(we were in the Southwest when I was in high school in the 80's). There is a tremendous sense of community pride and support for the schools. Definitely much to celebrate!

[Hoopie74]

Some of these aren’t small schools...
Jackson and Portsmouth are far from villages

Hoopie wanted

I guess in the grand scheme of things, Portsmouth is medium to small now in D3 and Jackson would be considered small as a D2 schools. Big cities being Chillicothe and Portsmouth as a whole.are tiny compared to Columbus or Cincinnati.haha! I do know that South Webster and Eastern Pike are in fact small schools that play in a league with some bigger schools.

[Big Daddy 7371]

danicalifornia
have no clue to who those 2 might be

[mlittle]

[Ironman92]

Eastern Brown is literally in the middle of a corn field...nothing around but corn and some fresh water shrimp ponds down the street Eastern has had success with four girls' Final Fours,and One boys Final Four in basketball. There have been many track and cross-country success stories. Our first state track champion is now a Division I college track coach at Wichita State University, and another one of our state track qualifiers was NAIA track coach of the year at Mount Vernon I believe. We even have state qualifying marching and concert bands(with many athletes in both...contrary to stereotype). Heck we even have a WOrld Champion Odyssey of the Mind championship team. That being said Brown County is experiencing massive growth. I guess the 6th grade at EMS has about 130 students, and the Lake Waynoka neighborhood is experiencing growth that is unprecedented. A's on the state report cards are displayed in banners all over the campus. EHS is the western-most school in the southeast I think(we were in the Southwest when I was in high school in the 80's). There is a tremendous sense of community pride and support for the schools. Definitely much to celebrate!

EB is proud and they do things well. I think Whiteoak HS and Lynchburg Clay are farther west, maybe Miami Trace also

[trojandave]

I included Portsmouth HS on this thread because the topic header is "small schools", not "small towns". PHS is D3 in basketball, D5 in football. A much smaller school than when I graduated.

[wipala]

trojandave, I agree with your post. Question, although Portsmouth has really shrunk in population, how had Scioto county population changed in this time?

[trojandave]

wipala: The 2010 census for Scioto County was 79,499.......the county population has been rather stable over the past 25 years. The latest estimates I've seen for 2020 is about the same, maybe slightly less than the 2010 figure.

[wipala]

trojandave, thanks for the info.....based on this info,imo, county schools should have grown some. PHS will continue to lose students
unless some nice work and jobs come and people choose to live in Portsmouth. I graduated in 1964, I think we had around 250...not sure....PHS
at that time was a Soph-Senior, no freshman,,,,still had Grant and McKinley......

[Girlbye]

Eastern Reedsville is small. Had a 1,000 point shooter in Jett Facemyer and soon Garrett Barringer he’s not far off. School size doesn’t matter. Talent and hard work is what gets the teams where they need to be. Eastern girls b-ball team won state champ not long ago, boys football went with an extremely small team to football playoffs this year as well. It’s all in hard work.

quote=Hoopie74 post_id=1846091 time=1580093185 user_id=3280]
Anyone who has ever been to Peebles ,knows that our sports teams will fight to the end. Not always the best ,but; they will compete. We are in the middle of no where. Our neighboring schools,Northwest,Piketons,Western Latham,Whiteoak,North Adams and West Union play sports against each other like they are killing snakes. A big deal for us is making the channel 5 news like we did the Friday night. Everyone around watched the news clip of Dawson Mills jumping out of bounds,grabbing the ball and throwing it down court where Kyle Lighter grabbed the ball and went in for a crowd stirring slam. The crowd went nuts.
They don't like each other while the games are on ,but; are usually friends off the field or court. The one thing that hurts each small school program is getting enough players to compete year in and year out. They like to stay at THEIR schools.
Travel is a big thing and most families don't have enough money to send their kids to camps or travel ball so a good program from biddy ball thru high school is imperative. Most of the kids play several sports so a year round single sport atalete is usually non existent here. I believe Joe Burrow was a good example of a kid who grew to a man playing several sports.
School pride is # 1 in Adams county. The schools out in the sticks. Let's hear about your small schools and the bigger schools in southeast Ohio.
[/quote]

[trojandave]

Girlbye: I agree with you about the benefits of having talent and a strong work ethic, but I strongly disagree with you on your point about school size doesn't matter. Cincinnati Moeller vs. Eastern Reedsville......Moeller wins 99 times out of 100.....they should......they have 700 more boys than Eastern. Big difference when you have considerably more to choose from.

If you were trying to make a point about school size within the same division, I can understand your point on that better. But larger schools (D2 and D1) will beat D3 and D4 schools the majority of the time. Small schools have and will continue to produce good individual players that may go on to play at the collegiate level, but team wise it is rare to see a D4 school beat a D1 or D2 school.