The more things change, at least one thing stays the same

Happy Tuesday!

For all the change in high school sports we’ve reported over the past several weeks and months, most notably the Ohio High School Athletic Association expanding tournament divisions and last week’s approved referendum items (more on those below), some things do remain the same over the years.

One of those is my single favorite event of the high school sports year, the Central District softball tournament at Pickerington Central.

District final weekend, which this year was condensed to nine games in one day Saturday after rain postponed Friday’s four games, features both an extravaganza of games at one time and the controlled chaos that comes with such overlap. With as many as four games at one time, cheers and announcing drifting across the diamonds, fans moving between the games and wafting smoke from bratwurst and hot dogs on the grills, it truly is an event unlike any other.

Only tennis features so much overlapping postseason competition in the same facility.

It’s a lot to take in, especially when you’re trying to monitor every game at once, but it’s a labor of love. And then once it’s over, you wonder how it went so fast.

If you were there and think Saturday was something else, you should have been there when Pickerington also hosted the district semifinals in all four divisions. By necessity, some games started at 2 p.m., right about when school let out back then. The overlap of school and softball traffic was, to trim a popular phrase, “a cluster,” even more so prior to August 2003 when Pickerington was still a one high-school town.

Here are my recaps from Saturday, separated into the four Division I games and the five finals from divisions II, III and IV .

Today features my regional preview . Semifinals are Wednesday, weather permitting, and the finals are Friday. The state tournament is next weekend at Firestone Stadium in Akron.

Of all the change that will come, for the better or otherwise, in high school sports, here’s hoping the softball tournament remains at Central for years to come.

We plan to explore some of those changes in the weeks and months ahead as an era of expansion awaits. Stay tuned to The Dispatch for the latest.

Now, on to the news of the week:

With change comes flexibility: Six referendum items passed in the two-week voting period that ended last Wednesday, but the headliner was that schools can request to move up to Division I in a given sport if they so desire. And, obviously, if they think they can compete.

It is important to clarify that schools cannot move to any other division. That hasn’t been ruled out, but for now, it’s only Division I.

Such moves also are effective for one year, so if teams want to remain in Division I but naturally are aligned elsewhere, they have to apply annually. And such applications do not affect other sports, so if a school wants its boys soccer team in Division I but other teams are aligned into division II or III, for example, those other teams stay in division II or III.

Something for everybody: Take a deep breath, as I did before typing all of this …

Softball wasn’t the only sport to clear the district stage last week. So do boys tennis, from which 18 area players advanced to state this Thursday and Friday in Wooster.

Here is your full list of area qualifiers, and here is my recap from Saturday’s district finals.

In addition to the individual tournament, Columbus Academy and Olentangy Orange will compete in the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association state tournament Saturday at Wooster. Orange broke through last year and is headed back, and Academy is at state for the third time in four years. …

The boys volleyball teams from Hilliard Darby, Olentangy Liberty and St. Charles won regional championships Saturday and will play in state semifinals this coming Saturday at Wittenberg.

All of those programs have been powers over the years, even if they haven’t been to state in a few years. Liberty was last year’s Division I runner-up.

Here are your all-region teams. …

Baseball has reached the district semifinal stage, and Frank DiRenna takes a look at what you should watch for this week.

Frank also previews today’s City Leagu e final between Centennial and Eastmoor Academy.

Congratulations to Hamilto n Township’ s Josh Woods , who was named The Dispatch’s regular season player of the year last week. Thanks to our thousands of readers who participated in the poll. ...

The first full week of the lacrosse regional tournaments is off and running. Here are my primers on the boys and g i rls tournaments.

And congratulations to Upper Arlington’s Tommy Janowicz and Olentangy Liberty’s Isabelle Pohmer for winning boys and girls lacrosse regular season player of the year. This is not to be confused with our upcoming All-Metro teams, but some of the nominees certainly will make appearances again.

Also hitting regionals this week is track and field. Frank dives into boys and girls storylines to watch this week.

Congratulations …: … are in order for longtime Pickerington Central football coach Jay Sharrett, who will be presented the Lifetime Achievement Award on June 20 during the Central Ohio Sports Awards at Mershon Auditorium.

Sharrett was on board as defensive coordinator for some very good Tigers teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s, then made them a powerhouse in 20 seasons as head coach. …

Even more congratulations go to four central Ohio high school coaches who have been named winners of the OHSAA’s Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Awards.

Area winners are Thomas Worthington’s Kendall Horner (girls lacrosse), the Lancaster duo of Jeff Koksal (boys cross country) and Tom Stedman (girls golf) and Hilliard Bradley’s Kevin Moody (softball).

The boys lacrosse winner has yet to be determined.

Get the full list here , courtesy of the OHSAA.

Athlete of the week: Our poll for this week’s Athlete of the Week is open through 4 p.m. Friday. We have three nominees this week.

Nominations are accepted through noon Monday for events of the previous week. Learn how to nominate an athlete here .

Our most recent winner is Olentangy track and field athlete C.J. Sanna . The sophomore swept the discus and shot put championships at the Ohio Capital Conference-Cardinal Division meet, and his 192 foot, 4 inch mark in the discus from earlier in the spring ranks 15 ^th nationally.

That’s it for this week.

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See you next week!

Dave Purpura, sports reporter

dpurpura@dispatch.com

@dp _dispatch

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: The more things change, at least one thing stays the same