Sudden Shift For Ardmore & Holland Hall
Get 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy! An unexpected and unprecedented move happened on Tuesday morning that sent 4A’s #5 Holland Hall into Class 5A, effective immediately. With that move, a team in…
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An unexpected and unprecedented move happened on Tuesday morning that sent 4A’s #5 Holland Hall into Class 5A, effective immediately. With that move, a team in 5A had to move down to 4A and that ended up being Ardmore, who is 2-5 on the season. A mistake was made prior to the season involving Holland Hall’s ADM number, combined with the rule in which private schools must move up a class if they have prolonged success. That is defined by a school making the final eight, normally the state tournament, in any given sport two times in a three year span.
This obviously had a major impact on the overall race for the state tournament and when we say unprecedented, we mean that it hasn’t happened. After exchanging a few emails with a representative from the OSSAA, they acknowledged that it has happened where mistakes were realized after a season but this is the first time that teams have been moved during the season of play. They also acknowledged that this was a mistake and they felt that the only thing to do was to make the move immediately. They mentioned that both schools were very understanding.
For Ardmore, they now look to refocus and try to make a trip the Big House in Oklahoma City as opposed to Lloyd Noble Center in Norman. And for Holland Hall, this makes things very interesting. The Dutch were ranked #5 in the most recent Class 4A rankings and currently sit with a 10-0 record. They beat Victory Christian on Monday which was a Class 4A top ten battle and potential area final preview. Now, it’s just a solid conference win as the Dutch shift their focus on Class 5A. They also dominated Regent Prep on Tuesday night behind a stifling defense that held Regent to just 18 points.
If we had to predict where Holland Hall would rank right now in Class 5A, we would think they are a borderline top five team in the class. At 10-0, the Dutch have been one of the top teams in the Tulsa area. We believe that the Dutch will also give Memorial and Nathan Hale, the two top teams on the east side, some much-needed competition. We wrote a few weeks ago that Class 5A is arguably deeper and more competitive than it’s been in nearly a decade and Tuesday’s sudden move for Holland Hall to join Class 5A just emphasizes that claim.