(6-28-21) The Toledo Blade’s Dave Briggs recent article has a question and answer session with the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s (OHSAA) Executive Director Doug Ute…it is a must read for fans.

Ute told Briggs about the success of the past school year despite the pandemic:

“Looking back, I couldn’t be more happy that it turned out the way it did. And I would acknowledge that our member schools are the ones that pulled this off, in particular the athletic administrators at these schools and the administrations, because it wasn’t easy.”

Briggs asks numerous questions in the article and doesn’t sidestep any of the ‘hot-button’ issues.

Q: The expansion of the football playoffs has obviously fired up some strong emotions. Would the OHSAA have been better of if it had just said, “Look, this is about the money, but we see other benefits as well”?

Q: The competitive balance formula put in place in 2017 began to address the public-vs.-private debate, but, of course, those tensions haven’t gone anywhere. As much as I hope to see all schools remain in the same ring, are we headed toward separate tournaments for the public and private schools? Should there be?

Ute is all business when it comes to those tough question:

I will also tell you we’re not going to run our organization based on social media comments. I’ll be very honest, I didn’t read them as a superintendent, and I don’t in my new role. We’re just going to do what we think is right.

The Blade stories are subscription based (for a buck you can get a one day pass); however hitting the Twitter link below seems to allow you to read the article.