High school football: Wadsworth drops to Division II, Cloverleaf to D-IV

The Wadsworth football team's on-again, off-again relationship with the largest division in Ohio continued Thursday when the OHSAA released updated divisional assignments. After spending the last two seasons as one of Division I's smallest schools, the Grizzlies are returning to D-II. Cloverleaf surprisingly is on the move, too, dropping to D-IV from D-III. Wadsworth, which beat Brunswick before losing to Medina in last fall's Region 1 playoffs, will rejoin Highland in D-II, Region 6. The Grizzlies have swapped between D-I (formerly Class AAA) and D-II (AA) 13 times since the playoffs were founded in 1972, with the longest tenure being D-I from 2000-14. Region 6 is comprised of west-side Northeast Ohio schools and Northwest Ohio. Longtime powerhouse Avon has dominated the region, but other notables include Avon Lake, Olmsted Falls, Whitehouse Anthony Wayne and Toledo parochial schools St. John's Jesuit and St. Francis de Sales. Cloverleaf was D-III for the last 11 seasons but will, outside of Orrville, become the eastern-most school in D-IV, Region 14. The region is designed largely around U.S. Route 224 heading west, with the exceptions being Sandusky Perkins and Bellevue to the northwest. Other notables are Shelby and Van Wert. The five other Medina County schools remained unchanged. Black River is in D-VI, Region 21, Brunswick and Medina are in D-I, Region 1 and Buckeye is in D-III, Region 10.