The unique 2020 Ohio preps football season ended with every team becoming eligible for postseason play, but some opt-outs ended seasons.
For schools like Gamble Montessori and Cincinnati Country Day, those opt-outs kept streaks of missed postseasons alive.
Cincinnati Country Day had made the Ohio High School Athletic Association football playoffs 14 times, but not again since 2015 and for Gamble, the Gators had never made the postseason.
Both schools made the cut in 2021.
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Gamble Montessori finished its first season as an Ohio High School Athletic Association playoff-eligible team in 2012. The Gators went 5-4 in games that counted toward playoff totals but finished No. 13 in Region 24 where only the top eight make the playoffs.
Gamble Montessori almost made the cut in 2014, finishing 10th in the region, and in 2017, finishing 11th in the region.
The program surged in 2021 and finished with a 6-2 record. The Gators were No. 9 in Division VI, Region 24, but made the playoffs with the expanded postseason field.
Gamble just missed hosting a playoff game and will travel to Jamestown Greenview on Saturday for its first postseason game.
Cincinnati Country Day also found a program resurgence in 2021. The Nighthawks were 0-6 in 2020 and had won only two games in 2019.
This season, CCD completely flipped the script, going 7-2 while clinching the Miami Valley Conference Gray division title.
The Nighthawks host Deer Park in the postseason on Saturday.
Both teams benefited from the OHSAA expanded postseason fields. Following the rules of the preveight-team field by region, Gamble would have missed the cut by one spot and Country Day would be a visiting team in week 11.
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