February 26, 2001
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors approved sites for the Boys Soccer State Tournaments, and tied up loose ends in activity recommendations at its regular meeting Monday (Feb. 26) in the IHSA Office.
A proposal from North Central College in Naperville to host the Class A and Class AA Boys State Final Soccer Tournaments for the next five years was approved by the Board. The stadium will have a new artificial grass turf in place for the two tournaments this fall. The Class A Tournament will be held Oct. 26-27, 2001, and the Class AA Tournament will be the following weekend, Nov. 2-3.
Other proposals for the Class A event only were received from Lemont High School, which has a new facility scheduled to be completed by 2002, and Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, which has hosted the Class A event in recent years. There were no other proposals for Class AA.
State Series Action
The Board approved a revised recommendation from the Football Advisory Committee to change the steps in the tiebreaker procedure for the final qualifying spot(s). After using total wins by a school’s opponents during the season and then a school’s wins over teams it beat during the season, the next criteria will be:
The Board approved a change in Girls Volleyball in the schedule for regionals to provide that the Class A Regionals be played on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and that the Class AA Regionals be played on Wednesday and Saturday. The recommendation addresses the shortage in officials currently being experienced, and scheduling conflicts with Friday night football playoff games.
The Board approved a change in golf for both boys and girls to provide that individual honors in each level of competition will be determined from among all golfers participating at that tournament. Individual honors may be won by golfers who participate either as team members or individuals. This procedure has been used in the past in the girls series, but not in the boys series. Previously in the boys series, only golfers who qualified for individual honors could compete for individual honors.
Other Action
The Board authorized the Association not to assess membership dues for the 2001-02 school term.
Eligibility Decisions
The Board took the following action regarding appeals:
1) Sustained the Executive Director’s ruling that DeKalb High School forfeit six contests in boys basketball in which an ineligible student participated. The student participated in two church league basketball games while a member of the DeKalb varsity boys team. On Jan. 16, the student was ruled ineligible for the team’s next eight games or until the end of the season, whichever is sooner.
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 February, 2001, agenda:
Sportsmanship Power Index: The Board heard a report regarding a new vehicle for recognition of good sportsmanship. The concept is a Sportsmanship Power Index. Schools in the team sports will rate each other after they engage in dual contests using the School Section of the IHSA Web Site. Schools will be rated by their opponent after every dual contest. Recognition will be made in each sport, in each of the fall, winter and spring sport seasons and for overall sportsmanship. The Board authorized the staff to present the concept to the Athletic Administrators Advisory Committee for evaluation, and the report those findings.
Strategic Planning: The next Strategic Planning meetings will be conducted April 29-30 in Bloomington at the IHSA Office. The Sunday session will be from 2:00-6:00 p.m. and the Monday session will begin at 8:00 a.m. Appointments to the committee will be made by the Board at a later date.
Sectional Complex Concept: The Board heard a report of staff evaluation of the sectional complex concept. Previously, the Board charged the staff to review the concept and to make recommendations regarding it. The report contains recommendations that maintain geographic competition and advancement of teams from geographic areas to succeeding levels of competition within a given state series. The Board authorized the staff to create vehicles for gathering reaction to the report before the Board takes action on any of its recommendations.