The first Friday of the 2026 high school football season in Greater Cincinnati and across Ohio is hours away on Aug. 21.
Some programs have new coaches, some have transfer-changed rosters and some are loaded and ready to get back to state championship contention.
Here are some questions facing Cincinnati's Divisions III-VII programs for the 2026 season.
Who was the last Greater Cincinnati small school to win an OHSAA title?
Starting off with a question not for a specific program, but for the small schools as a whole. Who was the last to win an Ohio High School Athletic Association football state championship?
Cincinnati was represented in last year's Division I and II state finals as St. Xavier and Anderson both finished as state runner-up finishers.
Indian Hill was a state semifinalist in Division IV, but fell to Shelby.
The Wyoming Cowboys were state finalists in Division IV in 2022, but fell to Glenville 26-6 in the championship game. To find the last small school champ from the area, go to the year before that.
In 2021, also in Division IV, Clinton-Massie capped a 14-1 season with a 29-28 victory over Youngstown Ursuline in the state final. Down 28-7 in the third quarter, Clinton-Massie came back and won on a Kody Zantene touchdown and Carson Vanhoose two-point run with 45 seconds left in regulation.
The championship was the third for head coach Dan McSurley as head coach of Clinton-Massie.
Speaking of McSurley, his tenure leads to the next point.
What will the Kevin Scholz era look like at Clinton-Massie?
Dan McSurley retired as head coach at the end of the 2025 season after leading the Falcons to a 10-2 season. McSurley had over 300 wins and those three state championships to his name and it will be on new coach Kevin Scholz to carry on the program.
Scholz, the son of Oak Hills head coach Dan Scholz, was a defensive line coach at Ridge Point High School in Texas when Clinton-Massie hired him.
Senior Ty Martin will help lead Scholz's defense after being named Southern Buckeye Conference Defensive Player of the Year last year. Clinton-Massie's run-heavy offense did graduate Tristen Trampler who had almost 1,400 yards and 21 touchdowns, but returns its next two top rushers in Brady Gray and Peyton Warren.
Clinton-Massie's new era gets hit right away with some non-conference tests, beginning with a trip to Waynesville before two home games with Coldwater and Tri-Valley.
Which coaches, players do Taft replace after another 11-win season?
Taft has been one of Cincinnati's most successful programs in recent years, going 23-4 the last two seasons with a regional title in 2024. After last season, the Senators had some changes made.
In addition to head coach Tyler Williams being hired at North College Hill, the Senators were also hit by some big-time player transfers.
Monsanna Torbert, Taft's quarterback and a Michigan commit, transferred to Princeton. Lorenzo McMullen Jr. and Sean Torbert joined him. Reunited with Williams at North College Hill are Eddie Holloway, Josiah Pouncy and Marlee Godfrey.
To replace Williams as coach, Taft went to another Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference-experienced coach and hired Robert Rachel, a Taft alumnus. Rachel was previously the coach at Gamble Montessori where he led the Gators to their first playoff appearance and a CMAC-Blue Division title.
Taft's season begins on Aug. 22 against Kirtland, last season's 15-0 Division VI state champions.
Who will Indian Hill see in Division III after Division IV success?
The Indian Hill Braves won the Division IV, Region 16 championship last season, starting the season 13-0 and even knocking off defending regional winner Taft in the tournament. Indian Hill's run ended in the state semifinals, falling to Shelby 42-7.
John Rodenberg's Braves return All-Ohio quarterback and Mississippi State baseball commit Devlan Daniel and should make another postseason run, but with a bit of a change.
The Braves were moved up in the offseason from Division IV, Region 16 to Division III, Region 12. Last year's regional winner, Tippecanoe, will defend its title, but 2024 regional winner and last year's top regional seed, London, is now in Region 16.
Indian Hill loses some wiggle room with playoff points now in Division III as nine of its 10 regular-season opponents are in smaller divisions, with the 10th opponent being out-of-state Beechwood. The smaller division an opponent is in, the fewer playoff points a team gets for a win.
Badin, Ross and Talawanda, other small schools who would have been Region 12 rivals, were moved up to Division II for the 2026 season.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Questions for Cincinnati small-school football teams in 2026
