December 4, 2000
BLOOMINGTON - Sites for the boys baseball and girls softball state final tournaments for the next five years were approved by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors at its regular meeting Monday (Dec. 4) in the IHSA Office.
The Board accepted a proposal from Springfield to host the Class A Boys State Baseball Tournament at Lanphier Park. It accepted a proposal from Geneva to host the Class AA Boys State Baseball Tournament at Elfstrom Stadium. And it accepted a proposal from East Peoria to host the Class A and Class AA Girls State Softball Tournaments at the EastSide Centre.
"We received some great proposals to host our annual bat and ball tournaments," said IHSA Executive Director Dave Fry. "The number of proposals for each event was surprising to our staff and the Board. What we found in all of them was a desire by the host community and/or host school to become thoroughly involved in the event. The impression we received from reviewing the different facets of every proposal was this: we'll do it right or we won't do it at all."
Each successful community will host the state final tournaments in the years 2001-2005 inclusive. Neither of the baseball sites have changed, but the softball site is a new one. The Class A Baseball event has been in Springfield since 1978. It came to Springfield from Peoria where the state baseball tournament began in 1940. The Class AA Baseball event switched from Peoria to Springfield in 1979 and from Springfield to Geneva in 1993. The annual softball tournament began in Pekin in 1976 and both the Class A and Class AA events were held there until the Class AA event moved to DeKalb in 1998.
The IHSA received proposals from Danville, Peoria and Springfield for the Class A Boys State Baseball Tournament. Only Geneva sought the Class AA Boys State Baseball Tournament. The IHSA received proposals from Champaign-Urbana, East Peoria and the Quad-Cities to host either or both the Class A and Class AA softball events. Submitting a proposal for only the Class A softball event was Pekin. Submitting a proposal to host only the Class AA softball event were Barrington and DeKalb.
"With the addition of baseball and softball, we now have accepted proposals from communities and institutions to host our events in seven different sports," Fry said. "We currently have the specifications out for boys and girls soccer. Proposals to host those four state finals are due in our office Feb. 6 for the boys events and April 11 for the girls events. Each time communities have been invited to submit proposals to host our state finals, the event has flourished. Our students have been able to compete for the state championship at a great site, and our fans have found their trip to the state tournament to be an enjoyable one."
Other Business
Auditor's Report -- The Board received the preliminary audit for 1999-00 from representatives of the firm Clifton, Gunderson.
Future Board Dates -- The Board set the following dates for its 2001-2002 school year meetings: June 29 or 30, 2001; Aug. 13, 2001; Sept. 10, 2001; Oct. 15, 2001; Dec. 3, 2001; Jan. 15, 2002; Feb. 11, 2002; March 16, 2002; April 29, 2002; June 13, 2002.
Eligibility Decisions
The Board took the following action regarding appeals:
1) The Board sustained the Executive Director's ruling that a student is ineligible at Palos Hts. (Chicago Christian) until June 10, 2001 (a period of three sports season) for noncompliance with transfer by-law 3.043. The student transferred from Flossmoor (Homewood-F.) this fall without an accompanying move to a new public school district by his parents. The student participated in football, basketball and volleyball last school term.
2) The Board sustained the Executive Director's ruling that a student is ineligible for the 2000-01 school term at Harvey (Thornton) for noncompliance with transfer by-law 3.043. The student transferred from Richton Park (Rich South) this fall. He transferred to live with his father who does not have custody appointed by the court.
3) The Board sustained the Executive Director's ruling that a student is ineligible for the 2000-01 school term at Joliet (Twp.). She transferred from Indianapolis (Arlington) this fall and was living with an individual who is acquainted with her non-school club basketball team coach, William Anderson. Subsequently, guardianship was assigned by the court to Ms. Josephine Ward who resides in Joliet. The Board ruled there still was no documentation of circumstances completely beyond the control of the student, her parents/guardian and school to allow it to modify the Executive Director's original ruling.
Discussion Items
At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain agenda items the Board discusses, but upon which it takes no action. Following is a report of those on the December 2000, agenda:
Fall Meetings - The Board heard reports regarding the annual Principals Rules Meetings, the annual Athletic Directors Division Meetings, the annual Town Meetings and the annual Legislative Commission Meetings