Strongsville High Changes Football Regions

STRONGSVILLE, OH — Strongsville High School football will be playing a new group of opponents in 2017. The team will move from region two to region one next season, part of a sweeping set of changes from the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA).

Division I, region one is one of the most crowded and competitive groupings in all of Ohio high school football. Other teams in the region include perennial powerhouses St. Ignatius and St. Edward, as well as up-and-coming teams like Solon. Neighboring Berea-Midpark is also in Division I, region one. (Stay up-to-date on all local news by subscribing to the Strongsville Patch newsletters.)

OHSAA also announced that all playoff games leading up to the state championship will now be played on Friday nights. The organization cited the increasing number of college football games on Saturdays and declining attendance for its decision.

“For a few years now we have studied the possibility of moving all playoff games to Friday nights for the first four rounds,” OHSAA Assistant Commissioner Beau Rugg said in a statement. “Due to so many more college football games being played on Saturday nights, attendance at our Saturday playoff games has steadily declined, and more potential playoff sites have said they cannot host games on Saturdays. We now have enough playoff sites to handle all the games on one night, and the football coaches association was in support of this change, too, because teams will get to stay on their normal weekly schedule of playing on Friday night.”

Championship games will still be played on Saturday night. Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, in Canton, will host the 2017 games. Those games will be played Nov. 30 - Dec. 2.

The schedule for high school football, released by OHSAA, is below.

Monday, July 31 – Practice begins (mandatory 5-day acclimatization period)
Monday, Aug. 21 – Regular season begins (719 schools playing football in 2017)
Tuesday, Sept. 19 – Weekly computer point releases begin
Saturday, Oct. 28 – Regular season ends
Sunday, Oct. 29 – Final computer points and playoff qualifiers announced (224 total qualifiers)
Friday, Nov. 3 – Regional quarterfinals played at higher seed, 7:30 p.m. (112 games)
Friday, Nov. 10 – Regional semifinals played at neutral sites, 7:30 p.m. (56 games)
Friday, Nov. 17 – Regional finals played at neutral sites, 7:30 p.m. (28 games)
Friday, Nov. 24 – State semifinals played at neutral sites, 7:30 p.m. (14 games)

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