The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors met for their March meeting on Saturday, March 16, 2019, at the Pere Marquette in Peoria. The Board acted on one action item during the regularly scheduled meeting.
ACTION ITEMS
1. The Board approved a recommendation to update the IHSA Board Policy related to Weekly Player Limitations for Football. The The new section reads:
Weekly Player Limitations for Football
1. A player shall not play in more than two games in any one week, and shall not play in more than one game in a single day. For the purposes of this section, a week is defined as the seven-day period running from Friday through the following Thursday. (It is recommended that if a player does play in two games in a given week, one of those games is only as a one-way player. [i.e., only plays on offense or defense or special teams])
2. Players cannot play in games on consecutive days or be involved in live contact/thud in practice the day before/after playing in a game.
3. One play in a game equals a game played.
An exception to this would be:
a. Specialized players (kicker, punter, holder only) can participate in back to back games on the same day.
b. A player who enters the game for one play only due to an equipment failure or injury, will not have that play counted against them as a game.
NOTE: If a player plays in a game that is stopped due to weather or other circumstances and completed the next day, the player can participate in the resumed game the following day. This is allowed because the exposure is considered not equivalent to a full game being played the night before.
IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson:
“We understood that this policy would continue to be tweaked as it goes into its first season of action and expect future changes could arise after its first fall of implementation. We are appreciative of the collaborative efforts by the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee and Football Advisory Committee to work together to find a common ground that best protects our student-athletes, while not overly limiting our coaches.”
APPEALS & ELIGIBILITY RULINGS
1. The Board modified the Executive Director’s ruling on a student from Joliet (Central). The student was ruled ineligible for non-compliance with IHSA By-law 3.022, but the student will have continued eligibility at the school this spring.
2. The Board postponed the appeal of a student from Peoria (Richwoods) until the April Board meeting.
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 March 16, 2019, agenda:
1. The Board heard a presentation from Peoria High School Athletic Director Brien Dunphy recommending the Board consider changes to the IHSA enrollment policy that would not take classification enrollments into account until the spring.