The St. Charles boys soccer team will compete in the Division I postseason after all, just as it wanted.
The school won an injunction against the Ohio High School Athletic Association in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on Oct. 6, one it filed for after admitting it missed the deadline to be reassigned to Division I while being classified into Division II.
Court records confirmed the decision, as did Cardinals coach Chris Vonau in a text message to The Dispatch.
Vonau, St. Charles attorney Luke Fedlam and the OHSAA did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
St. Charles wanted to remain in Division I, the classification in which it was state runner-up in 2024, a state semifinalist in 2025 and has competed for several decades, according
to its 35-page civil complaint.
“St. Charles is not asking to move down a division or obtain an easier path through the postseason,” the complaint read. “It asks to move up to Division I – the division it selected before the deadline, the division for which its team has prepared, and the division it has competed in for decades.”
St. Charles’ legal win means the Cardinals will be one of 26 teams in the Division I Central District tournament. Division II now has 19 teams, 18 from the Central District and one, Logan, from the Southeast District.
The tournament draw is Oct. 11.
With an enrollment of 615 boys, St. Charles and Westerville North are the second-largest schools in Division II. Both are one boy behind Thomas Worthington and three shy of the smallest school originally assigned to Division I, Elyria.
Why St. Charles took the OHSAA to court
St. Charles filed its civil complaint Sept. 11. The hearing was Oct. 5.
Preliminary divisional assignments were announced April 23, and the complaint admitted the school’s athletic department did not submit the opt-up form to the OHSAA by the May 8 deadline.
According to the complaint, a St. Charles assistant athletic director who was not named told athletic director Dave Lawler the form could be scanned to his phone and submitted electronically. When Lawler asked if that process had been completed, he was told it had, but a miscommunication led Lawler to believe the entire process was completed while the assistant understood that to mean the form had been scanned and converted to a format that could be submitted electronically.
The school then did not revisit the opt-up process, believing it to be completed, but realized when the final alignments were released June 22 that the Cardinals remained in Division II.
Despite submitting the opt-up form later the same day, the OHSAA told St. Charles its request could not be granted because it was received after final placements were made.
Further attempts to resolve the issue were met with the same response, according to the complaint.
St. Charles was assigned to Division II each of the past two seasons – the first two in which the OHSAA instituted five divisions for the soccer postseason – but was able to opt up to Division I and made lengthy tournament runs both years.
Schools have the option to switch divisions, but only to Division I.
High school sports reporter Dave Purpura can be reached at dpurpura@dispatch.com and at @dp_dispatch on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: St. Charles soccer wins injunction to play in Division I tournament
