D3 In SE Ohio 2015-2016

[trojandave]

Looking far ahead to the 2015-2016 season, I believe D3 will return to the norm of having a deep field of very good teams, making getting to the regionals much tougher. Here are some of the prime contenders for regional berths in D3: (I don't have complete names for some players or teams)

Portsmouth: returns 3 starters Kyre Allison (SE district POY), Kendal Reynolds, and Ethan Leonard.......also returns Cole Lowery, Luke Purdy off the bench
Chesapeake: returns 3 starters, including Gage Rhodes, 6-6 Brad Meadows
Fairland: returns the bulk of their roster, including 6-6 sophomore C Van Horn, also some good sophomores-to-be who saw minutes as freshmen
Zane Trace: returns Pierce Mowery (1st Team SE district), only 1 or 2 seniors on this year's roster
Adena: returns most of its roster losing only 1 or 2 seniors
Valley: returns 4 starters, including Bryan Rolfe (1st Team SE District), Blake Howard, Bryce Romanello
Waverly: returns 6-5 Mason Chapman, junior guards Marquez, Rigsbee, Gilbert, senior guard Henderson

There are probably a couple more teams that I may be omitting (maybe Eastern Brown and Lynchburg Clay), but these 7 teams above should all contend for their league title and all have a chance to reach the regionals. All of the teams with the exception of Waverly had winning records last season. New enrollment figures come out this spring........I'm hearing that Minford may drop to D3.......if that is the case, then add the Falcons to this list.......they return starters Jared Alley, Brandon Rowe, and Tre Kelly.

[danicalifornia]

Zane Trace has had 2 bigs transfer out already, one of which was All SVC and I think was All District as well.

They will still be pretty solid because of Mowery, but not as good as they could've been with a full roster returning.

[trojandave]

That's too bad for the Pioneers, because I thought with Mowery they would be set to perhaps challenge Unioto for the SVC crown. Now it looks like that won't happen.......but it's still a long way to next season. Fun to talk about what might be, though.

[SouthGallia#1 in bball]

Look out for Lynchburg if the player who was dismissed is back. He's an outstanding player and will be a senior.

Sounds like ZT needs to get some things ironed out. Athletes shouldn't leave a school en mass.

[knightruner]

Some of you folks need to get out of Southeast Ohio and see some real Basketball. Want to get better, try playing some of the teams in the West-side of the state instead of playing what you think is good teams in your own backyard.

[danicalifornia]

Some of you folks need to get out of Southeast Ohio and see some real Basketball. Want to get better, try playing some of the teams in the West-side of the state instead of playing what you think is good teams in your own backyard.

Cool. Maybe you should head to yappi if you don't like talk of SE Ohio basketball.

If you just look at the results of the state tournament, you can see where the best basketball is played, it isn't rocket science. But, people in this area can still support the basketball in our area. Too bad it's played in slow motion, like you've previously stated.

[bbjunky81]

Zane Trace has had 2 bigs transfer out already, one of which was All SVC and I think was All District as well.

They will still be pretty solid because of Mowery, but not as good as they could've been with a full roster returning.

They have already transferred since the season ended? Who were they and where did they end up?

[BlueDuck]

Some of you folks need to get out of Southeast Ohio and see some real Basketball. Want to get better, try playing some of the teams in the West-side of the state instead of playing what you think is good teams in your own backyard.

If you aren't interested in SEO basketball, why do you post on here?

[Raider6309]

Athens to Dayton and Cincinnati are three hour trips. Athens to Columbus is 1 hour. Columbus always has good D4-D1 sports so zero reason to travel 2 more hours. We tried to schdule a team in the MAC land in football but they didn't want to travel to Athens. Goes both ways

[Crab's Brother]

Valley is going to be real close to being D4.

[Jason Vorhees]

Crab's Brother, isn't Valley predominantly close to D4 for basketball? Have they been D4 in the past? Also, I was thinking they would be pretty close to D7 in football, too. If they do happen to drop for basketball or football then look out. They could make some serious noise in both sports; they already do in D3 and D6 for basketball and football.

[trojandave]

knightrunner: I don't know which schools you're talking about, but check out the index of teams that have made the state tournament listed in the back of the state tournament program. Portsmouth HS has a very impressive state tournament resume. PHS has the second most appearances of all time with 15, 4 state titles, 4 state runnerups, 8-1 in last 9 state semifinal games, and have been to the state tournament in 8 different decades. The Trojans made back to back appearances in 2011 and 2012, and in fact beat Western Ohio perennial power Ottawa-Glandorf (3 time state champion) in the 2012 state semifinals 74-66 (also beat them in the 1978 state semifinals)

I know that in the last 2 years the Columbus schools have swept D2, D3, and D4 in the Athens regionals. At least this year the games were much more competitive than in the 2013-2014 season. Peebles and Trimble made very respectable showings in the D4 regionals, Portsmouth lost by only 4 to Columbus Eastmoor in the D3 regional final (Villa-Angela was going to win the state title anyway), and Unioto gave their D2 regional game away vs. Walnut Ridge, missing 5 or 6 FT's in the last 2 minutes to lose by 1.

I do agree that SE teams should try to schedule outside the district, which would help them come regional time. I know Valley played Harvest Prep at Shawnee State, Athens played Akron St.Vincent-St.Mary, Chillicothe played Gahanna Lincoln and Pickerington Central, Ironton played Huntington HS (WV), which won the Class AAA title there. Fairland played Africentric at the Ironton Classic, and Minford played Columbus Watterson at Shawnee State. Portsmouth had to play 20 league games (OVC and SEOAL), Chillicothe and Wheelersburg to fill their 22 games. Normally Coach Collins would opt to play outside the district at least a couple of games, and in 2015-2016 PHS is going to Florida for 3 games.

There are quite a few examples from last season of SE schools playing teams outside of the district.

[trojandave]

I probably should mention Oak Hill as a contender for the regionals next season. Although I didn't see the Oaks play this past year, I know they have quite a bit coming back, with two impact sophomores in 2015-2016......and of course Coach Norm Persin, who can win with about any type of roster he has.

[trojandave]

Southeastern District State Championships since 2000:

2006: South Webster beat Columbus Grove (Western Ohio) D4
2008: Chillicothe beat Toledo Libbey (Northwest/Western Ohio) D2
2009: Oak Hill beat Kalida (Western Ohio) D4

[eagles73Taylor]

As far as scheduling teams from say Cbus or Cincy, it depends on the talent level running through you system at the time and using the ever fallible crystal ball. Normally you schedule 2 to 3 years in advance. Since taking over AD at Piketon in 08', in boys basektball we have picked up teams such as Columbus Mifflin, Horizon Science Academy, Cincy Clark Montessori, and Zanesville. During that time Piketon also scheduled local perennial powers in Peebles, Vinton co., Valley, Portsmouth, and some others I am forgetting. During that time the Streaks won 4 league titles, 6 sectional titles, 2 district titles and 1 regional.

Now, the tide has shifted and we must look at our schedule and try to match it with our talent. Also, travel involved, we are no longer allowed trips such as Zanesville.

[4thgoal]

Valley is going to be real close to being D4.

And I will go out on a limb and say that Minford will drop back down to D3 this year

[art_vandelay]

Minford would have had a great shot at getting to Regionals/State this year in D3, and probably will next year as well. Same thing for Valley in D4 next year. Would like to see both these moves happen to give Southeastern District a better chance to knock off Central District teams in Reqionals and get more teams to Columbus.*

[ohbuckeye2]

Ironton returns 3 starters: Phillip Kratzenberg, Marques Davis and Desmond Young

4 -- Phillip Kratzenberg ----- 5'11 - 12 ---- Starter
12 - Mitchell Weisgarber --- 5'9 -- 11
21 - Kevin Davis ------------- 6'2 -- 11
23 - Marques Davis ---------- 5'11 - 12 ---- Srarter
24 - Trevor Hacker ---------- 6'0 -- 11
32 - Jake Isaac --------------- 6'0 -- 11
34 - Raphael Glover ---------- 6'2 -- 11 ---- played a lot of minutes off the bench
42 - Desmond Young --------- 6'1 -- 12 ---- Starter
44 - Austin Harper ----------- 6'3 -- 11
45 - Chase Rowe ------------- 5'8 -- 11
50 - Isaiah Dodgion ---------- 6'3 -- 11

Plus next years Sophomores and a great Freshmen class coming up. I wouldn't be surprised to see some Fresmen getting some good minutes next season.

[trojandave]

ohbuckeye2: I don't have Ironton as one of the prime contenders simply because even though they have 3 starters back, offense will be a serious challenge for Coach Lafon. I don't see anyone coming up right now who can replace Tristan Cox, who was by far IHS's best scorer this past season. Defensively, I think Ironton will be able to hold its own. I saw the JV team several times this past year other than the Portsmouth games, and they struggled mightily. The freshmen class may take a year or two to really make a significant impact at the varsity level. In addition, the OVC next year will be very competitive as it was this year. Portsmouth, Chesapeake, and Fairland all have more impact players coming back than Ironton does.

[pembrook burrows III]

dave - I would not be surprised if 3-4 guys absent from this list are significant contributors to the Ironton basketball team next year.