ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The unofficial start to the high school sports season locally is the OVAC All-Star football game. But for athletic directors, event directors, and media members, the ball really gets rolling during the annual open house and media/AD/Directors night.

That transpired Wednesday at Belmont College in St. Clairsville, with OVAC Executive Director Dirk Decoy and staff playing host to a host of attendees, discussing all manner of conference-related items.

And now, the real work begins which Decoy admits is getting a little easier each summer as he’s now settled into his position.

“It has,” Decoy admitted. “It’s slowed down in one sense, but we now have more time to grow and do more outreach and other things for the kids.”

Make no mistake, Decoy is in this for the students athletes in the OVAC and providing them the best experience possible during their time involved with the conference.

“I’m all about the fun, bringing more fun back and making memories,” Decoy said. “We’re celebrating our 80th anniversary and we’re excited about keeping the conference going for another 80 years.”

One tradition Decoy is particularly proud of are the number of scholarships handed out by the conference each year which, at the end of the 2022-23 school year, grew from 44 to 63, totaling roughly $53,500 in scholarships.

It’s a solid amount, and each of those student athletes are better off for it. But Decoy wants to do more.

“It’s a nice number, but we want it to grow even more,” Decoy said. “It’s a good number, but for how big the OVAC is, it’s still small considering, including freshman, we’re over 24,000 students.”

Speaking of money and students, another recent conference decision is paying dividends with both students and their families. For the second year, student tickets were priced at $1 for the all-star football game at Wheeling Island Stadium.

The first year, the promotion did well, with 1,005 dollar bills dropped in the ticket bucket. The 2023 edition? Even better.

“This year, we had 1,276 students and the overall attendance increased from 2,600 to more than 3,300,” Decoy said. “We also did it for the volleyball championships, the showcase of bands, plus the girls’ and boys’ basketball championships.

“Hopefully it can keep growing and we can offer it at more events.”

New Addition

While there’s no new schools joining the conference–this year anyway–there will be a new championship held during the Fall season.

The OVAC Girls’ Golf Championships’ inaugural match will be slated for, Sept. 13 at the Crispin Golf Course at Wheeling’s Oglebay Park. The girls’ event will be sandwiched between the boys’ championships on Sept: 12 and 14.

Decoy noted that at last count, there were 13 full girls’ teams that will be competing, plus individuals from other members schools can compete on their own for medalist honors.

Girls’ wrestling doesn’t yet have official OVAC recognition, but those days may be sooner than later.

Ohio debuted its girls-only OHSAA championships last winter, and West Virginia is following suit by recognizing girls’ wrestling as an emerging sport, and hosting the inaugural Girls Wrestling Invitational Tournament in Huntington on March 2, 2024.

Decoy noted that girls’ wrestling, along with boys’ volleyball which also received emerging status for this season in Ohio, need roughly 25 percent conference participation, or 13 schools, in order to qualify for official conference recognition.

Boys’ volleyball is moving slowly, but Decoy said he wouldn’t be surprised if the OVAC is hosting a girls’ wrestling tournament sooner than later.

“Girls’ wrestling is really coming along,” Decoy noted. “I can’t believe how many young ladies are competing in the Ron Mauck Wrestling Tournament. Some schools have up to 3, 4, 5, 6 girls on the team, and others are fielding all-girls teams in the conference.

“We need 25 percent of our schools to say they will sponsor a sport, and we take that to the executive board and they have the final say if we bring it in or not.”

Officiating

The OVAC is doing its part to help combat the officials’ shortages happening across the country, including here in the Ohio Valley.

The conference previously hired two gentleman whose sole job is to work to recruit new officials. Those hirings are starting to bear fruit.

“There’s not one single solution, but we feel we’ve taken the bull by the horns,” Decoy said. “We’ve hired two guys as co-directors of officials recruiting, and they are working to generate interest in all sports.

“They’ve brought in 41 new basketball officials since last year, 18 football, 18 volleyball, and I think six in softball.

“We have a ways to go, but we are making a dent.”

Decoy did admit one area the conference is having trouble recruiting new officials is for soccer. Efforts continue, but he did note some schools are working to find alternative solutions for this season to avoid any last-minute cancellations that were seen during the 2022 season.

“Some of our member schools are going outside the area and working with officials in the Cambridge area I believe,” DeCoy said. “The schools are helping themselves because of the limited number of soccer officials.”