No playoffs for NRC softball

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North Rock Creek’s fast-pitch team will not be allowed in this season’s OSSAA playoffs. The Oklahoma Secondary Schools Athletic Asso

The Oklahoma Secondary Schools Athletic Association had previously decided not to include the Lady Cougars in this year’s playoffs, and the OSSAA board of directors voted 14-0 last week to reject North Rock Creek’s appeal of that decision.

David Jackson, executive director of the OSSAA, commenting the organization’s decision said, “We love having North Rock Creek as a fairly new member. Their timing to enter the playoffs was in the middle of a cycle.

“They certainly will be included going forward.”

North Rock Creek had been assigned to Class A, which has district tournaments rather than district schedules like the larger classes.

“This was after we had been told all year that we would be eligible and would be in Class A in the playoffs,” said NRC athletic director Evan Smith. “Since Classes A and B don’t play districts, they didn’t take into consideration our growth from last year to this year.

Smith said he and other NRC officials first learned of the OSSAA’s decision around the first week of school in August that, “We would not be eligible for the playoffs like they had previously told us. And after that we were in constant communication trying to appeal and the official appeal would be taken up by the board Sep. 9.”

Smith said he sat in on the virtual meeting along with Supt. Blake Moody, softball coach Chance Griffin and NRC Board President Rick Gowin.

Smith said softball is based on a two-year cycle and “we are in the middle of that cycle.

“Had we had enough players last year, we would have been in Class B. So we should have been in Class B again this year,” he said, “or Class A, which they had told us all along.”

Smith said the OSSAA board’s decision was based on the fact “it was in the middle of the cycle. That was their reasoning for not putting us into a district, up into a higher classification.”

“We received an email from them, stating we would have to go Independent because we were too big for Class A and we wouldn’t be eligible for the playoffs,” he said.

“Our appeal was since we had been told we would be eligible for the playoffs that we should have been placed in a district. We had tried to be assigned to a district before the districts were even established.

“Their reasoning was they didn’t want to add us in the middle of a two-year cycle, though it had been done in other sports, including football,” he said.

“We will set new softball districts in October that will take effect in the fall of 2021,” he explained.

Despite the setback for this season, Smith said, “We are very excited about next season being the start of a new cycle and being able to be in the playoffs.”

North Rock Creek is in its third year of having a high school. Its teams have previously competed in the OSSAA playoffs in boys and girls basketball, track and cross-country.

The school chose not to compete in an OSSAA district in football for this season and next.

Classification for sports competitions are based on the size of schools’ student bodies.

The OSSAA lists North Rock Creek’s ADM this year at 329, which would be in Class 3A, along with Meeker and Chandler.