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Two Mahoning Valley girls basketball teams wound up as the No. 1 seed in their respective divisions of the Northeast Ohio expanded district tournaments.
Postseason play begins in the area on Saturday, Feb. 13, with sectional brackets finishing up the following week. District tournaments are scheduled the week of Feb. 22-27 with the regional tournaments the following week and the state tournament set for March 11-13 at the University of Dayton.
The two No. 1 seeds are South Range in Division III and McDonald in Division IV. Seeding was determined by a vote of coaches in each division. Coaches placed their teams on the expanded bracket in order of seeding.
In recent seasons, teams were assigned a bracket arranged geographically with a fixed site hosting district game, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic coaches now can put their teams in one of two brackets (three in Division I) with all games through the district played at the better-seeded team's site.
The new process was used in the fall sports season for boys and girls soccer and volleyball.
Other area teams earning good seedings included Harding, No. 8 in Division I; Poland (2), Salem (4) and West Branch (5) in Division II; Garfield (2), Brookfield (3), Champion (4), Ursuline (5), Crestview (6) and LaBrae (8) in Division III; and Western Reserve (2), Newton Falls (3), Bristol (5), Jackson-Milton (6), Maplewood (7) and Springfield (8) in Division IV.
With the new format, coaches have more flexibility in placing their teams and it makes for interesting potential matchups.
In Division II, top-seeded Perry ended up with No. 4 Salem, No. 6 Kenston and No. 7 Canton South in its district bracket. Poland is in the opposite bracket and is grouped with fourth-seeded West Branch, No. 3 Marlington and No. 8 Southeast.
In both Division III and Division IV, most of the teams in the top eight seeds are area schools. South Range's bracket includes Brookfield, Crestview and LaBrae, but all three are on the opposite side of South Range. In the other district bracket, the same thing occurred with Champion, Ursuline and No. 7 Kirtland lined up on the opposite side of Garfield.
McDonald's D-IV district bracket includes Newton Falls, Bristol and Springfield. Western Reserve is grouped with Jackson-Milton, Maplewood and No. 4 East Canton.
Division I, with three district brackets, found Harding in the same bracket as No. 2 Stow-Munroe Falls and No. 5 Canton McKinley. Canfield, Boardman and Howland also are in that same bracket.
Fitch is in a district bracket with No. 3 Akron Hoban and No. 4 North Canton Hoover. Top-seeded Canton GlenOak also has No. 6 Massillon Jackson and No. 7 Nordonia in its bracket.