IHSA Announcements

May 2, 2000

Board Approves State Final Sites

State final sites in football, individual wrestling, girls basketball and boys basketball for the next five years were selected today (Tuesday, May 2) by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors from proposals submitted by communities seeking to host the events.

Proposals accepted by the Board were from Bloomington-Normal to host Class A and Class AA Girls Basketball, from Champaign-Urbana to host the Football Playoff Championship Games and Individual Wrestling, and from Peoria to host Class A and Class AA Boys Basketball. Each proposal is for the community to host the state final for the school terms of 2000-2001 through 2004-2005.

"This is the second time in our history we have sought proposals from communities interested in hosting our larger state finals, and this time we received much stronger proposals across the board than we did five years ago," said IHSA Executive Director Dave Fry. "In all instances the proposals we received demonstrated a willingness within the communities to couple management of the events with involvement by people throughout the host community. It will be fun to work with our state final hosts these next five years."

Fry said the Board reviewed each proposal thoroughly. "There were some tough decisions made by our Board today," Fry said. "Each proposal was unique. Those who prepared them spent considerable time, energy and effort in their development and presentation. I want to thank all those involved for creating outstanding proposals."

On May 2, 1995, the IHSA Board of Directors accepted proposals to host state finals in girls volleyball, boys individual wrestling, girls basketball and boys basketball. Sites approved were Bloomington-Normal for girls volleyball and girls basketball, Champaign-Urbana for boys individual wrestling and Peoria for boys basketball. On Sept. 8, 1999, representatives from seven communities met in the IHSA Office to receive specifications for proposals to host those four events plus the boys football championship games. The Board approved a proposal from Bloomington-Normal on March 18 to host girls volleyball beginning with the next school term (2000-2001) through the 2004-2005 school term. Deadline for communities to submit proposals for the other state finals was March 22. Today's regularly scheduled Board meeting was its first since March 18.

Proposals to host the football championship games were received from DeKalb and Champaign-Urbana. Proposals to host the individual wrestling tournament were received from Champaign-Urbana and Peoria. In girls basketball, only Bloomington-Normal submitted a proposal to host both state finals on separate weekends. Peoria submitted a proposal to combine the boys and girls state finals by class on each weekend, the same weekends as the current boys events. Peoria also was the only community to submit a proposal to host both boys basketball state finals on separate weekends. Champaign-Urbana submitted a proposal to host only the Class A boys basketball state final.

Other Action

The Board took the following action regarding the regular business of the Association:

Special Legislative Session: The Board authorized the Executive Director to convene the Legislative Commission in Special Session. The Commission will address a series of amendments to the transfer by-laws, the recently adopted coaching school by-laws, and the recently adopted by-laws that define which students are bona fide students and eligible to represent a member school in interscholastic contests. The Legislative Commission will be called into special session within the next three weeks.

Officials Association Grant Program: The Board established a grant program for officials associations effective with the 2000-2001 IHSA Annual Budget. The Board set aside a total of $5,000 for the program. Recognized officials associations can apply for grants not to exceed $500 in a given year. Grants will be awarded on an annual basis for recruiting programs, mentoring programs or education/clinics by local associations. Presently there are 89 different officials associations recognized by the IHSA Officials Department.

Sportsmanship Curriculum Training: the Board approved a plan to train an additional 50 individuals to be able to administer the Citizenship Through Sports Course offered by IHSA in conjunction with the National Federation. These trainers will be authorized to administer the course to individual schools and conferences. The trainers also will be utilized in future Sportsmanship Summits, where students who attend the summits will become more involved in the content and operation of them. The Board also authorized expenditure of monies from the Sportsmanship line item in the annual IHSA budget to pay for a portion of the cost of training one person per member school participating in the course.

Sectional Complex Study: The Board instructed the IHSA Administrative Staff to review the sectional complex format as it presently operates in athletic and non-athletic state series. Consideration will be given to how it impacts each respective state series from competitive, financial and other standpoints. In addition, how it effects competition between member schools, and whether it has accomplished what it was intended to achieve will be reviewed. The Board instructed the staff to report findings and submit any recommendations during the next (2000-2001) school term.

Arizona Accord: The Board endorsed The Arizona Accord regarding a program for character building and sportsmanship as a tool for member schools. Details of the program will be made available to the membership.

Advisory Committee Recommendations Reviewed

The Board also acted on recommendations from nine Advisory Committees. Following is a recap for each committee:

Boys/Girls Basketball

  1. Did not approve a recommendation to institute a sectional complex format in Class A girls and boys basketball.
  2. Approved a recommendation to allow Class AA girls sectional managers to schedule either a doubleheader on Monday or separate games on Monday and Tuesday.
  3. Approved a recommendation to revise the Basketball Ticket Policy regarding the regional final game and all sectional games. Under the revision, the host school for the game will receive 20 per cent of the available tickets and each school participating in each respective game will receive 40 per cent of the available tickets.

Scholastic Bowl

  1. Did not approve a recommendation to increase the number of teams advancing from the sectional to the state final from one to two.
  2. Approved a recommendation to adopt pool play at the state final, to decrease the number of questions in a round in pool play from 30 to 24, and to establish a tiebreaker system in pool play with head-to-head competition first and total points scored in pool play second.
  3. Did not approve a recommendation to seed the teams in the regionals.
  4. Approved a recommendation for a formula to pair the sectionals so that the winner and runner-up from a given regional not be paired against one another in the first round of the sectional.
  5. Did not approve a recommendation to seed the state final teams after they had been determined.
  6. Approved recommendations to define consulting in Illegal Talking and to authorize only the team captain to ask that a bonus question be repeated in Legal Talking.

Sports Medicine

Received the report of the advisory committee and tabled action until the June
Board meeting.

Girls Bowling

  1. Approved recommendations to change the advancement of bowlers in the individual portion of the state final tournament. The top twenty (20) individuals who are not members of a competing will compete in the third round. The top ten (10) individuals who are not members of a competing team will compete in the final round.
  2. Approved a recommendation for the state final to use lanes 9-24 for competition in the third round and lanes 13-20 in the final round, and to install bleachers in lanes 10 and 23 for spectators to view the final round.
  3. Approved a recommendation to draw for lane assignments in the sectional and first round of the state final in the event an odd number of teams are competing.

Boys/Girls Gymnastics

  1. Tabled recommendations to increase the number of team trophies at the state final in both boys and girls from three to four, and to increase the number of individual medals in each event in girls regionals from three to five.
  2. Authorized procedures to be included in the Meet Manager Manual in boys for the meet director to move a competitor up or down five spots in the rotation if the gymnast is scheduled to perform within two spots in a second event.

Officials

  1. Approved recommended change in the penalty to an official for not attending a rules clinic within three years to probation for one year, then suspension if the official does not attend a rules clinic.
  2. Approved a recommendation regarding certified clinics that will allow them to be conducted over two or more days, so long as the clinic includes from four to six hours of instruction by a certified clinician, and the sessions are within 30 days of one another.
  3. Approved a recommendation to allow officials associations to conduct certified clinics as long as they are conducted by certified clinicians.
  4. Heard a progress report regarding the Officials Convention scheduled for July 14-15, 2000.

Boys/Girls Swimming

  1. Approved a recommendation for girls and boys to set the limit of coach passes for the state final to three (3) per school.
  2. Approved a modification by the Athletic Administrators Advisory Committee to a recommendation regarding the practice times on Saturday of the state final in girls and boys. Diving practice will be from 9:00-10:30 a.m. Swimming practice will be from 11:00 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
  3. Approved changes in girls qualifying times as follows: 200 Freestyle Relay 1:42.49, 200 Medley Relay 1:53.69 and 400 Freestyle Relay 3:44.99.
  4. Did not approve a recommendation to experiment for one year in boys and girls to permit the next fastest non-qualifying sectional time in an event to fill any open lanes in the respective event at the state final prelims.
  5. Approved a recommendation in boys and girls to require each school to submit the Official Events Entry Form to both the IHSA Office and sectional manager before a specified deadline.
  6. Approved a recommendation to allow for the diving awards to be presented at the conclusion of the diving competition in boys and girls sectionals.
  7. Approved a deadline of Wednesday prior to the state final in boys and girls for schools with qualifiers to order season tickets. If tickets remain, they will go on sale at the state final site each day.

Boys Wrestling

  1. Approved a uniform criteria for seeding at the regionals. It will be a) head to head; b) common opponent; c) vote of coaches; d) flip of coin. Only four wrestlers will be seeded in each weight class, with the remainder drawn.
  2. Approved a recommendation that regionals have three floor officials assigned to them.
  3. Tabled a recommendation to increase the sectional host allowance from $2,700 to $3,400.
  4. Heard a report regarding appointment of an ad hoc committee to study the dual team series format.

Speech

  1. Received the advisory committee report and tabled it until the regular June meeting.

Athletic Administrators

  1. Received the report of the April 12 committee meeting.

Discussion Items

At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain agenda items which the Board discusses, but upon which it takes no action. Following is a report of those on the May 2000, agenda:

Scholarship Proposal: The Board heard a progress report regarding sponsorship of a new scholarship program. The program will be launched in Colorado and Illinois next school term. Underwriting the program is the Gart Sports Companies. In Illinois, Sportmart is its local outlet. A total of six scholarships will be provided to three male and three female students who meet the company's criteria. The new program is called the Support Students in the Sport of Life Scholarship. Details of the program will be distributed to IHSA member schools in the annual all-school mailing this summer.

Television Contract: The Board heard a progress report regarding current television contract negotiation. The current contract expires June 30, 2000.

Report of Auditor General: The Board received the annual audit report of the Association by the Illinois Auditor General.

School Classification: The Board received the report of the classification of schools for the 2000-2001 school term. It was reported to the Board that that data is on the IHSA Web Page under the Announcement section. Cutoff enrollment is 2000-2001 will be 734 and below in Class A and 735 and above in Class AA in the two-class system. Schools going from Class AA down to Class A will be Decatur (Stephen Decatur) and Mt. Carmel. Schools goring from Class A to Class AA will be Maple Park (Kaneland) and Norridge (Ridgewood). The Board also discussed a request from Aurora (Illinois Math and Science Academy) that only the actual enrollment of its sophomore, junior and senior classes be used in determining its classification. The school does not admit freshmen. IHSA classification policy stipulates that a four-year enrollment be used in classification. Schools with three years of classes add one-third of the total number of students in the three grades to determine their four-year figure.

Track and Field Survey: the Board received the results of the Survey of track schools regarding classification and pole vault. The results of the survey will be given to the Track and Field Advisory Committee for its review. The committee's regular annual meeting will be in September. The complete results of the survey are on the IHSA Web Site in the Announcements section.

IHSA Newsletter: The Board heard a report that the April/May 2000 issue of the IHSA News would be the last issue of the IHSA News to be printed and mailed to the membership and others. Beginning next year, the IHSA Web Page will be the vehicle for distribution of information previously contained in the IHSA News and its predecessor, the Illinois Interscholastic magazine. The Board also heard a report that information regarding the assignment of schools, pairings and other information regarding the different state series will no longer be printed and mailed to the news media and others. That information, too, will be published on the IHSA Web Page.

Girls Volleyball State Final: The Board received a Pass It On Celebration poster for the 2000 Girls State Final Volleyball Tournament. The poster will be sent to member schools. This year's tournament will be Nov. 10-11 and will be augmented by the following: Fan Interactive Skill Area; Sportsmanship Summit for Adults; Volleyball Clinics for Coaches, Students and Officials; Girl's and Women's Health Fair, 10K Road Race, Special Recognition including Captains Day, Officials Day and Volleyball Heritage.