Commentary: "These are games you want to be in."
We started prepping for the shock seven years ago.
Yesterday it arrived –
Bellbrook girls basketball is Division I.
Bellbrook is a big school. Hard to fathom.
Twenty-five years ago, when I graduated, Bellbrook was D-III in basketball. There remain four OHSAA classes.
Like similar districts that have grown exponentially and expeditiously –
Mason and
Springboro come to mind – Bellbrook finally achieved D-I status. Its climb was slower than some, but steady. Several districts across the region mirror the transformation. Locale plus opportunity plus open-space plus exceptional education equals expansion.
Bellbrook isn’t totally new to D-I sports. The school’s track and field, cross country and tennis programs currently compete in D-I postseasons. Soccer has before.
However, with the addition of basketball and volleyball to the state’s big school ranks for the first time, and soccer returning, nearly all of Bellbrook’s girls sports are now D-I. Swimming, softball and lacrosse remain the holdouts – for now.
Scary? Certainly.
Exciting? Absolutely.
Like I told my daughter – an incoming freshman who plays volleyball and basketball – “Everything accomplished in postseason play will be new.”
Attaining trophies and wins will be far more difficult – and gratifying – in D-I.
To plan, competing against those schools will be nothing new.
In non-league games the last several seasons, Bellbrook varsity girls basketball coach Jason Tincher has inflated the non-league slate with D-I schools. Centerville,
Fairmont (Kettering) and
Beavercreek are now regulars.
“The schedule is tough,” Tincher told me for the Dayton Daily News. “We upped it a little more and that’s OK. These are games you want to be in.”
Challenging your roster is what’s needed to build a program.
So is what we’ve done at the youth level.
In 2013, my first year as director of the Bellbrook Wee Eagles girls basketball program, we decided that the organization’s “A” teams would play Division I in the local Dayton Metro conference. Opponents would be Centerville, Beavercreek, Fairmont, Springboro,
Wayne (Huber Heights),
Miamisburg, etc. Our “B” teams would play D-II and III based on ability.
In 2014, we decided we would keep only 8 players on the A teams and 10 on the B.
Cultivating confidence and skill against top competition was the goal. The pay off has been pronounced.
To be expected, not everyone bought in. They never will.
Some want teams divided equally. Some want there to be no players cut. Some want unlimited teams per grade. Some want the program to be more like a recreational organization. Some still don’t think we’re select enough. Some still don't think Bellbrook is a big school.
There’s no answer to appease everyone. Never will be.
The question we all face, though, is the same. How can our girls compete against D-I teams?
Turns out they already have been. Successfully.
Bellbrook is ready for the big dogs.
Bellbrook, which finished state runner-up in the first OHSAA girls state tournament in 1976, has been to the Class AA/Division II Final 4 three times.
Photo by Eric Frantz
