June 14, 2001
Dr. Martin L. Hickman will become the sixth Executive Director of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) July 1, 2002. Hickman was named to succeed current Executive Director Dave Fry, who will retire June 30, 2002, by the IHSA Board of Directors Thursday (June 14).
Dr. Hickman was named an assistant executive director by the IHSA Board of Directors and joined the administrative staff July 1, 1991. He was promoted to Associate Executive Director on July 1, 1999. He currently is in charge of the following activities: girls badminton, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls tennis, foreign exchange programs, coop teams, investigations and strategic planning.
While on the IHSA staff, Dr. Hickman also has been the administrator in charge of boys and girls golf, boys wrestling, boys and girls soccer and music.
A native of Colorado, he grew up in Illinois and graduated from New Berlin High School. He earned his bachelor's degree in education from Eastern Illinois University and a master's degree in educational administration from University of Illinois - Springfield. In 1994 he received his doctorate in education from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
He began his career in education as a teacher and a coach at Girard High School from 1980-83. While at Girard, Dr. Hickman taught health and driver's education in addition to coaching football, junior high basketball, and varsity baseball. During the 1982-83 school year he also served as the athletic director.
From 1983-85 Dr. Hickman was the principal of Bluffs Jr.-Sr. High School. For the next two years he was the principal of Westmer High School in Joy. In 1987 Marty was named principal of Monmouth High School, where he remained until joining the IHSA staff.
Dr. Hickman and his wife Nancy reside with their two sons in Bloomington.
Board Promotes Scott Johnson To Asst. Executive Director
Scott Johnson’s promotion to assistant executive director of the Illinois High School Association was finalized by the Board of Directors Thursday. He becomes the 25th person in the 101-year history of IHSA to serve the member schools as an assistant executive director.
Johnson came to the IHSA in August 1994 to take the new position of Data Processing Manager. In 1998 his job title was changed to Director of Information Technology.
During his seven years at the IHSA, Johnson has directed the Association's internal and external computer operations, including the IHSA Web site, which debuted in January 1996 and now receives over 40 million hits per year. He also oversees the Desktop Publishing Department and is editor of the many IHSA publications and souvenir programs.
His love of high school sports history and records has earned him the unofficial title of IHSA Historian. He and his wife, Julie, are currently working on a book commemorating Hebron's 1952 state basketball championship. The proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Illinois High School Activities Foundation.
Prior to joining the IHSA, Johnson worked for six years as a systems programmer in the University of Illinois's Computer-Based Education Research Laboratory, and before that for seven years at Control Data Corporation in Minneapolis.
Johnson is a graduate of Elgin High School and the University of Illinois. He and Julie live in Bloomington.
Advisory Committee Action
The Board of Directors acted on recommendations for Terms and Conditions and administrative procedures from three advisory committees.
"Our advisory committees meet on an annual basis, usually soon after the completion of the state series in that sport or activity," noted IHSA Executive Director Dave Fry. "Each advisory committee assesses the terms and conditions for its state tournament series, and all other facets of the sport or activity which may apply to the site of its state final event, and which may apply during the regular season."
Following is a recap of the Board advisory committee action:
Music
Sports Medicine
Speech-Debate
Other Action
The Board took the following action regarding the regular business of the Association:
Strategic Planning: The Board approved the IHSA’s second Strategic Plan. Action teams will be created and work on the strategies will begin thereafter. The Strategies are:
State Series Structure: The Board approved a uniform structuring plan for the seeding and bracketing of teams in the state series. The uniform structuring plan will be incorporated beginning with the 2002-03 school term.
In a nutshell, tournament structures in the team series will be created with designated sites in the geographic areas of the respective state series. Depending upon the number of teams assigned to the correlated geographic area, the structure of the series will provide that a top seed be assigned to each of the designated sites and the remaining schools would be assigned on a geographic basis to the designated sites. In football, the pairings in each of the eight classes will place the qualifying schools into geographic quadrants.
The purpose of the IHSA is to provide leadership for the development, supervision and promotion of good sportsmanship in interscholastic competition and other activities in which its member schools choose to engage. Participation in such interscholastic activities offers eligible students experiences in an educational setting which provide enrichment to the educational experience.
As stated in IHSA Constitution Article 1.140, the objectives of the Association shall be:
(a) to stress the educational importance, the cultural values and the appreciations and skills involved in all its interscholastic activities and to promote cooperation and friendship;
(b) to regulate its interscholastic program in both character and quantity according to the accepted objectives of secondary education so that interscholastics shall not unduly interfere with nor abridge the regular program of teachers and students in the performances of their regular day-to-day school duties;
(c) to encourage economy in the time of the student and teacher personnel devoted to interscholastic activities;
(d) to encourage economy in expenses of interscholastic activities; and
(e) to promote only those activities which enhance the school’s desired educational goals.
Organization of State Tournament Series
The system by which the IHSA organizes its state tournament series stems from the principles of the IHSA Constitution: that interscholastic activities should harmonize with the scholastic program and should be conducted with an eye toward economy of time (both of the student and the coach) and expense. Encouraging economy does not mean to suggest that there is no acceptable time or expense. Rather it suggests that unreasonable time and expense should be discouraged.
In conducting a state tournament series, schools from widely varied areas of the state will necessarily meet at some point in the competition. But to encourage economy of time and expense, it follows that in the earliest rounds of competition, the schools competing in a particular tournament/meet will be from a fairly concentrated geographic area. At later levels, the geographic area covered by the competing schools will necessarily be larger. At each level of competition, the host site should be centrally located, if at all possible.
To meet these goals, the IHSA has developed the following Geographic Principle that serves as a guideline for organizing IHSA State Tournament Series.
The Geographic Principle of
IHSA State Tournament Series
The State Series is designed to determine a State Champion. The State Series is not intended to necessarily advance the best teams in the state to the State Final.
- Representation in an IHSA State Final Tournament is determined on a geographic basis -- that is, schools advancing to the State Final Tournament (or in Boys Football, the State Final Game) qualify from given geographical areas of the state. Pairings for the State Final Tournament are determined every year in a drawing that is open to the media/public.
- The number of schools in a State Final Tournament, and levels of competition in the State Series, are determined by the number of schools entered in the series.
- Schools are assigned to first level tournaments/meets on a geographical basis so that there is a reasonable balance in the number of schools assigned at each first level site.
- Factors considered in assigning schools to first level tournaments include:
1. Schools willing/eligible/selected to host and their location;
2. Number of schools entered in state series and their locations; and,
3. Classification of schools in the state series.
4. In individual state series tournaments/meets, the number of schools with full teams assigned to the beginning competition is balanced as much as possible. Travel distance to the tournament/meet site could justify an imbalance in the number of schools assigned to a site.- Factors considered in assigning schools to first level tournaments do not include:
1. Won-lost records of the schools;
2. Strengths or weaknesses of the schools in a geographic area;
3. Anticipated or potential revenue; and
4. Individual, private requests of schools and/or coaches.
- Assignments to first level tournaments are reviewed and rearranged every 3 years (though the host of each first level tournament may change from year to year). Sometimes, changes in schools willing to host or schools entered may necessitate intermediate adjustments to the assignments.
Guidelines for Seeding for
Bracketed Team Sports and Activities
- Seeding shall occur only at the lowest level of competition, and therefore, neither the super-sectionals nor the state final shall be seeded.
- No seeded group shall consist of more than 24 schools. For sectional complexes involving more than 24 schools, this will require splitting the complex into two sub-complexes seeded independently. If any sectional complex in a given state series consists of more than 24 schools, then all complexes in that series will be split into sub-complexes.
- The coaches of the schools involved, except in football, where an objective computer-based system shall be used, shall do seeding of each group. When voting on seeds, coaches shall not vote for their own school.
- Any sport (except football) may opt to use one of two systems: the traditional regional-sectional method, where teams are pre-assigned to fixed regional sites, or sectional complexes.
- In state series that use sectional complexes, regional sites shall be determined in advance. When maximum size of all groups is 15 or less, 4 schools shall be seeded, while larger groups shall seed 8 schools. If any sectional complex in a given state series is seeding 8 schools, then all sectional complexes in that series will seed 8 schools. The remaining schools shall be placed on the bracket to facilitate proximity and, in football only, to eliminate potential immediate rematches of games played in the last week of the season.
- In football only, after the field for each class is determined, schools in each class must be grouped geographically into at least 4 groups.
- As outlined on IHSA Board policy, the Chicago Public League will determine its own state final tournament entry in all sports which they conduct a city tournament. In all other sports, schools from the CPL may enter the regular IHSA State Tournament Series.
Team Academic Recognition: The Board approved a new team academic recognition plan. Each eligible team at each member school will be eligible for the award on an annual basis. The combined Grade Point Average (GPA) of all members of the team who represent the school in the first level of the IHSA state tournament series will be used to determine the team GPA. If a school team achieves a combined non-weighted 4.0 GPA on a 5.0 scale, the team will receive the award. The Board authorized that the Association create an appropriate award plaque and provide the initial plaque to each member school. Plans are for the plaque to be shipped to each member school in the upcoming August All-School mailing.
Sportsmanship Power Index: The Board did not approve a plan to create a school’s Sportsmanship Power Index (SPI). The plan would have had a designated representative of each competing school in the team sports rate the sportsmanship of the opponent’s coaching staff, players/bench personnel and fans following each contest. The rating would have been done via the Internet through the School Center on the IHSA Web Page.
Foreign Exchange Policy: The Board approved a complete revision of the Foreign Exchange Student Eligibility Policy. The revised policy eliminates the previous Group B programs (total of 16) from eligibility. It also requires the host principal to complete and sign a new Foreign Exchange Eligibility Form, and forward it to the IHSA Office along with the Foreign Exchange Student Sports Participation Form to be completed by the student. To be eligible, the exchange student must not have completed or be a graduate from the culminating grade of high school (secondary) education in his/her home country. To be eligible the student must have passed twenty (20) credit hours of high school work (4 courses) from the previous terms of school attendance in his/her home country. To remain eligible, the student must meet all other eligibility standards of IHSA by-laws.
Basketball Rules Experiments: The Board authorized IHSA participation in two National Federation Basketball Rules experiments for the 2001-02 school term. One is to use a larger 14-foot coaching box. The present rule provides for a six-foot coaching box. The other will require the coach to replace a disqualified player immediately. The present rule allows the coach 30 second to replace the player. Failure to replace the disqualified player immediately would result in a technical foul. The present rule calls for a technical foul if the substitution is not made within the 30 seconds.
Personnel Policies: The Board approved the 2001-02 Personnel Policies for the IHSA staff, and re-employed the current administrative and clerical staff for the 2001-02 school term.
New Board Liaison: The Board approved adding a member of the Illinois Directors of Student Activities (IDSA) as a liaison to the Board. In addition, the following already appoint liaisons to the Board: Illinois General Assembly (one from Senate and one from House), Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois School Board Association, Illinois Association of School Administrators, and the Private School Association.
Discussion Items
At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain agenda items that the Board discusses, but upon which it takes no action. Following is a report of those on the June 2001, agenda:
Water Polo: The Board heard the following report on the status of state series competition in the sport of Water Polo: In December of 1997, member schools adopted season and participation limitation by-laws for water polo. At that time, about 20 schools had boys and girls participating in the sport. When participation numbers increased to about 30 schools, IHSA formed a committee to consider development of a state series for the sport, but upon review of the committee’s report, the Board determined that participation numbers still did not warrant a state series.
Water Polo participation has continued to increase in member schools. This spring, 52 boys teams and 42 girls teams participated in the state invitational tournament sponsored by the coaches group. Between 10 to 20 additional schools have established teams and are expected to participate in the coaches group tournament next year. IHSA staff has met twice in the last several weeks with water polo representatives. The Board discussed the potential for growth in the sport and its potential to become one in which there may be a state series in the foreseeable future.
Budget: The Board heard a report it will receive a first draft of the 2001-02 budget for review. It will act on the final draft at its August meeting.
Wrestling Weight Control Plan: The Board received the minutes of the Wrestling Weight Control Ad Hoc Committee, which met for the first time June 5. The Board heard a report that sub-committees have been set to address three components in a future plan. The components include Nutrition/Hydration Education, Body Fat Testing, and Body Fat Percentage to Use/Appeals. The ad hoc committee will reconvene Sept. 5.