The IHSA Board of Directors met for their regularly scheduled meeting at the IHSA office in Bloomington on Monday, June 12, 2017, where the Board approved three action items.


ACTION ITEMS
1. The Board approved a new IHSA State Final trophy design for the 2017-18 school year. The IHSA will unveil the new design later this summer.

2. The Board approved a recommendation to authorize the enrollment classification cutoffs for all of the IHSA’s sports and activities for the 2017-18 school year. Classifications will be posted on IHSA.org on Wednesday, June 14.

3. The Board approved a recommendation to allow schools earning a trophy in the IHSA Music Sweepstakes to purchase IHSA medallions for their students, in addition to the IHSA pendants currently provided to winners.


ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
Minutes from all Advisory Committees can be viewed by clicking here.

1. The Board approved the consent items, from the Advisory Committees in the following sports & activities: Boys & Girls Basketball, Boys & Girls Bowling, Competitive Cheerleading, Competitive Dance, Boys & Girls Gymnastics, Boys & Girls Soccer, Boys & Girls Swimming & Diving, Wrestling, Athletes with Disabilities, Chess, Journalism, Music/Solo Ensemble, Music Organization, Athletic Officials, Scholastic Bowl, Speech-Debate, Speech-Individual Events, Drama & Group Interpretation, Sportsmanship, Sports Medicine, Student Advisory Committee, Athletic Administrators and Activities Director.

Consent items are recommendations that received approval from the sport/activity advisory committee, the Athletic Administrators Advisory Committee and the IHSA staff. Consent items can be viewed by clicking here.

Two non-consent items were approved:
Boys & Girls Basketball
1. Per a change in the NFHS State Association Adoptions that occurred following the meeting of the IHSA Advisory Committee, the Board voted to adopt an expanded coaches box that will begin at the baseline and extend 28 feet toward the center line.

Sports Medicine Advisory Committee
1. The IHSA will discontinue the administration of performance-enhancing drug testing.

IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson:
“The Board had chosen to continue the Performance Enhancing Drug Testing Program the past few years, but ultimately did not appropriate any funding to conduct new testing. After thoughtful deliberation by the Board today regarding the future of the program, the Board and staff felt that it was important for our membership to understand that there would be no new testing in the immediate future. The IHSA will continue to enact its policy on performance-enhancing drugs as we shift our efforts more towards education and awareness. The program was enacted as a deterrent for performance-enhancing drug use, and we felt like it was a success in that regard, while also resulting in three positive tests through five years of testing. We are confident that the national attention on this subject in recent years has helped to better educate and increase awareness for student-athletes, coaches and parents. In addition, we believe that the influx of testing by our schools for various substances has also acted as a deterrent in student-athletes taking illegal and potentially harmful substances. Overall, we feel like the program was a success, and are pleased to know that we can quickly and efficiently reimplement it, should our member schools ever direct our Board to do so.”


Some consent items of note include:
Boys & Girls Basketball
1. The third- and fourth-place awards will be distributed in a ceremony following the state championship game in that class.

Cheerleading
1. The date for designating Coed status for the State Series will be moved back from November 1 to November 15.

Boys & Girls Soccer
1. Starting time window for Saturday State Series matches moved earlier to 10:00 a.m. with the exception of the ACT test date.

Boys & Girls Swimming & Diving
1. The qualifying standards were approved for the 2017-18 school year (click to see standards).

Chess
1. The IHSA Chess State Series will transition to Sectionals in 2017-18, with the inaugural Sectional round being held on Saturday of Week 30 (Jan. 27, 2018).

Journalism
1. Exhibition video category will be conducted at the 2017 State Finals.


APPEALS & ELIGIBILITY RULINGS
1. The Board sustained the Executive Director’s ruling on a student from Rockford (Our Lady of the Sacred Heart). The student’s eligibility was complete per IHSA by-laws 3.050 and its sub-sections.


DISCUSSION ITEMS
At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain items the Board discusses, but upon which no action is taken. The following is a report of those items from the June 12, 2017, agenda:

1. The Board heard a report from the Associate Executive Director on concussion reporting from Certified Athletic Trainers (ATC) throughout the state during the 2016-17 school year. The IHSA is compiling historic concussion reporting data and will release the report in the near future.

2. As a part of the classification approval process, the Board heard a report on the sports impacted by the success formula for the 2017-18 school year:
Sport                     School                                     2017-18SF Class
Boys Baseball         Arlington Heights (St. Viator)         4A
Boys Basketball      Belleville (Althoff Catholic)              4A
Boys Basketball      Westchester (St. Joseph)              4A
Girls Basketball       Bloomington (Central Catholic)      3A
Girls Basketball       Lombard (Montini)                        4A
Girls Cross Country  Urbana (University)                      2A
Boys Football          LaGrange Park (Nazareth Academy) 6A
Boys Football          Lombard (Montini)                        6A
Boys Football          Springfield (Sacred Heart-Griffin)    6A
Girls Softball           Springfield (Sacred Heart-Griffin)     4A
Scholastic Bowl      Urbana (University)                        2A
Boys Soccer           Elmhurst (Timothy Christian)         2A
Boys Soccer           Waterloo (Gibault Catholic)           2A
Boys Soccer           Westchester (St. Joseph)             2A
Girls Soccer           West Chicago (Wheaton Academy) 2A
Girls Volleyball        Bloomington (Central Catholic)      3A
Girls Volleyball        Joliet (Catholic Academy)             4A
Girls Volleyball        Wheaton (St. Francis)                  4A
Girls Volleyball        Woodstock (Marian)                     4A
Boys Wrestling        Lombard (Montini)                        3A

3. The Executive Director recognized the 2017 IHSA Distinguished Service Award recipients, who will be honored at a banquet on June 12, 2017:
Tricia Betthauser
Daniel Cliffe
Chad Dauphin
Dr. Richard Everett
Jim Gumz
Dennis Heskett
Kevin Hussey
Mark Kreiter
Jerry McDaniels
Paul Schmidt
Ross Truemper
Jim Williams

4. The Board heard an update from the Executive Director on the 2017 NFHS Summer Meeting.

5. The Board held a discussion on Wrestling Classification breakdowns as it relates to Policy 17C.

6. The Board heard a report from the Executive Director on the first annual 5K IHSA Road Race, which was held on June 3, 2017 at Heartland Community College in Normal.

7. The Board heard a report from the Executive Director on the IHSA being named the Outstanding Organization of the Year by Special Olympics Illinois.

8. The Executive Director, Board of Directors and staff recognized Board President Dr. Chuck Nagel of East Peoria High School, who retired at the conclusion of the 2016-17 school year and was attending his final IHSA Board Meeting.