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By Scott Hayes, Staff Writer 1:23 PM Thursday, October 29, 2009

The waiting game.

That’s what the Lebanon Warriors and Waynesville Spartans will be doing this weekend should they win their regular season finales on Friday, Oct. 30.

Both teams currently hold the eighth and final playoff spots in their respective regions heading into the 10th and final week of the season. But, neither team controls their own destiny.

Lebanon needs a lot of things to go its way to hold on to a playoff spot in the Harbin Ratings (the computer system the Ohio High School Athletic Association uses to determine playoff spots) in Division I, Region 4.

First, the Warriors must beat Miamisburg. Lebanon also needs Kings and Loveland to win to provide them with Level 2 points, then needs two of the following three games to their way: Fairmont over Centerville, Princeton over Middletown or Lakota East over Lakota West.

“Unfortunately, it’s out of our hands,” Lebanon coach Shawn Lamb said. “We need to take care of our business on Friday night against Miamisburg and the rest of the numbers will take care of themselves.

“We feel like our body of work is good enough to get there, but we happen to play in what I think is the best region in the country when you look at the parochial and public schools that are in Region 4 in southwest Ohio.”

Waynesville is sitting in a better position in Division IV, Region 16, but a win over Madison this week doesn’t guarantee the Spartans a spot.

There are six games that could have an effect on Waynesville’s position, but the main one is Jonathan Alder against St. Charles. Should Alder lose, the Spartans are in.

If Alder beats St. Charles, then Waynesville needs two of the following five results to happen: Bellbrook over Milton-Union, Ansonia over Miami East, Valley View over Brookville, Fort Loramie over Lehman Catholic or Dayton Christian over Troy Christian.

“We’re just going to get our kids focused on the task at hand — beating Madison,” Waynesville coach Glen Burchfield said. “We can’t control what happens outside of our game.

“Making the playoffs this year has been more of a challenge for us because we moved up to Division IV. Our kids realize it’s pretty special to be playing football when most other teams aren’t, and to extend our success this season would be extremely gratifying.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4526 or shayes@coxohio.com.

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