[Walking Boss]

I'm more familiar with the happenings on the NW side, but I'd get some discussions going about what to look for from the young'ns in 2012.

OCC Central

Coffman will have one of their better Freshmen squads in some time. Sells was much improved at 6-1-1 and Karrer also finished 6-1-1 I believe. The lion's share of Karrer studs are headed to Coffman. I think Coffman will likely be the team to beat in the Central and be one of the better teams in Central Ohio.

Marysville and UA should also be strong. Both Hastings and Jone made big improvements from 7th to 8th grade and the combined team should be pretty solid IMO. Marysville had a solid squad, as well.

Davidson will be interesting. Weaver was pretty weak, but they are under a mandate from BW to play everyone, so it is always tough to read them from MS to HS.

O-Lib: I'll need some help here. As I can't recall who feeds where in Olentangy. If I am not mistaken, one of the Liberty feeders was extremely strong and one was very weak. Not sure how that will play out.

Thomas might be OK, if they field a 9th grade team this year. Worthingway was a decent team with fairly good numbers, if I recall correctly. Hopefully they can keep the kids coming out.

OCC Cardinal

I'll preface it here that I can offer no insight on any of the Westerville teams. Not sure who is going where and what the levy impacts will be.

That leaves us with the Hilliards, Dublins, and Kilbourne.

In Hilliard, I think Darby will be strongest on the basis of a good Heritage class. Bradley will be decent, but no to the level of Darby.

Kilbourne should also be reasonably solid. They were much improved between 7th and 8th grade, aided significantly by a new stud running back.

In Dublin, both Jerome and Scioto should be pretty good. Thi Jerome class is pretty talented and only lost once in MS, and were without their best player when it happened. That being said, I think they will fall behind both Coffman (discussed above) and Scioto in the Dublin hierarchy. This upcoming Scioto class is deep and talented. They were hampered by abyssmal coaching in MS. They will likely win more games in 9th grade than they won in 7th and 8th combined.

All-in-all, I think the Cardinal will be very solid.

[Steve Wilson]

Olentangy Feeders:

Orange M.S.= Orange High School
Liberty M.S.= Olentangy Liberty High School
Berkshire M.S.= 1/2 Olentangy and 1/2 Orange
Shanahan=Olentangy High School

[EastSide]

Olentangy getting some studs. Big Walnut should be solid. Mt. Vernon solid. Delaware has a great freshman class.

[Walking Boss]

I've heard Coffman might be expecting as many as 60 freshmen coming out this year.

[bgfalcons86]

Nice analysis, Walking Boss!

Fortunately, Hilliard, Dublin and Upper Arlington are in the same Middle School 'pod' and play each other in viritually every sport. IMHO, raises the level of competition. Add in the game here and there vs. Olentangy, Marysville and Worthington, and that typically makes the kids on the NW side well-prepared for HS ball.

[TriB1948]

Hyatts middle school also feeds into Liberty.

[EastSide]

How is this class shaping up? Any D1 talent?

[DAKNAK]

it all changes by the time they become seniors!

[EastSide]

Any scrimmage dates lined up?

Big Walnut 8/11 @ St. Charles

[EastSide]

bump

[Walking Boss]

Originally Posted by Walking Boss

I've heard Coffman might be expecting as many as 60 freshmen coming out this year.

Coffman now has over 70 kids suited up for Freshmen ball. Pretty crazy. Biggest problem might be finding a way to get them on the field.

Heard Jerome is headed the opposite direction. Down to around 20 kids after starting in the mid to upper 30's. Injuries and kids quitting. Going to be challenging for them to build on the success those kids had at Grizzell.

[yourmove]

Eastside - on the occ capital thread i saw you said mt vernon only has 9 kids out for freshman. but you, steve wilson, and ImAvcch3 all previously said mt vernons freshman would be "solid" this year. What happened in august to this class? Also, you throw the word " great" around a lot when talking about delaware. What is great about the delaware freshman class ? Thanks for the info. In advance

[EastSide]

The Mt. Vernon freshman class was strong. They went far as 12yr olds and in 7th grade undefeated, 8th grade lost few when they had some players injured. This year, All but 1 skill position player that made up that core is playing fall baseball. They never had any more than 10 kids on the bench and those 10 kids only played in the 3 games they lost in two years. When your RB, FB, QB, WR, LB all are studs and all decide not to play this is what happens. I had heard for some time during baseball season from the Mt. Vernon kids that they weren't going to play and I didn't believe them. I thought they were messing with me being from Big Walnut and they were our only loss in our freshman class in 7th and 8th grade. Delaware freshman were huge in numbers and size in both 7th and 8th grade. They had so many kids that it was hard to develope all of them and they had trouble finding that kid or a few kids that would take over. Delaware has been like this in the past and I just was thinking that they were finally going to figure this class out. My friends kid is in Delawares freshman class but it looks as though he is being pulled to Varsity because the varsity is having some line issues. When I use the word great, I use it in a relative sense. Could Delaware or Mt. Vernon hold up to Allen High School in Dallas or St. Thomas Aquinas in Florida or St. Ignatius or Warren Central? Hell no. Are they state champion material...no. Delaware is great relative to Delaware as is Mt. Vernon or at least they were.

[pacerpower]

Originally Posted by EastSide

. My friends kid is in Delawares freshman class but it looks as though he is being pulled to Varsity because the varsity is having some line issues.

Delaware's starting varsity line are all returning letter winners from sophomore year. There is no freshman that has been getting any run with the starting line. There is potential for an incoming sophomore to start at center but that is still to be decided. The O line is undersized at some positions but the smaller players are also exceptional wrestlers so they can use leverage and position to their advantage. Delaware does have one of the freshman playing special teams and that young man has potential to be special with a great combo of size and speed. My personal prediction is that he will be the starting running back next year.

[EastSide]

Originally Posted by pacerpower

Delaware's starting varsity line are all returning letter winners from sophomore year. There is no freshman that has been getting any run with the starting line.

So much for sources again. Any future Delaware questions I will defer to you cause I am really the enemy. Thank you for the info. When there is no information, we all speculate based on limited info, now we have good info.

[Walking Boss]

Any info on upcoming Freshmen scrimmages?

Olentangy Braves - Dublin Scioto - Thomas Worthington have a tri-scimmage on Friday.

Any others?

[Hossxdeez333]

Word on the streets of The Ville (Westerville) is that North got 3 standout freshmen, possibly the 3 best in the district, only to be stolen away by the new head freshmen coach at South halfway through 2 a days... Looks like South is still at it.

Here they're loaded once again.

[Walking Boss]

C'mon Hoss, its all about IB program. You know that

[nc_ou_alum]

Originally Posted by Hossxdeez333

Word on the streets of The Ville (Westerville) is that North got 3 standout freshmen, possibly the 3 best in the district, only to be stolen away by the new head freshmen coach at South halfway through 2 a days... Looks like South is still at it.

Here they're loaded once again.

I heard the same.......How are they able to do this?
I was under the impression that once you participated in the first practice you were officially designated for the year.

Nonetheless.......this is BS.
I'm losing alot of respect for Pentello and the manipulation of the IB program.

[Walking Boss]

Originally Posted by nc_ou_alum

INonetheless.......this is BS.
I'm losing alot of respect for Pentello and the manipulation of the IB program.

Not sure how this, if true, could not be a OHSAA violation with regard to recruiting. I'm not saying it is true, so I am putting a big caveat on it, but I think it was an OHSAA violation for a coach to even casually approach a player from another school. OHSAA or not, shame on the Westerville district for allowing this sort of cr@p to take place. Though, with a pending Teacher's union strike (right after a levy passage mind you), intra-district recruiting is probably the least of their worries. North's coaches shouldn't take this sitting down (once again, if true).