IHSA Announcement

June 12, 2006

Board Adopts “Do What’s Right!” Sportsmanship Initiative

The Illinois High School Association’s Board of Directors voted to adopt a new sportsmanship initiative effective with the start of the 2007-08 school year at their regularly-scheduled meeting today.  Entitled “Do What’s Right!”, the program was one of a number of advisory committee recommendations approved by the Board on Monday.

“With their approval of this program, our Board continues to share the belief of our staff and member schools in the importance of good sportsmanship in interscholastic programs,” said IHSA Executive Director Dr. Marty Hickman.  “The ‘Do What’s Right!’ program will have the ability to be tailored to the needs of conferences and schools across the state, which, I think, separates it from other approaches that have been attempted.  But ultimately, good sportsmanship is an issue that everyone needs to embrace if schools want to send the right message to their students and communities.”

The program will include a number of components, including a sport season conference award, a yearly conference sportsmanship award, and a state final sportsmanship award.  Member schools will receive more information about the program in the August All-School Mailing.

Other Action

  1. The Board approved a recommendation from the Seeding and Grouping subcommittee to assign schools into brackets of 16 in the football playoffs, effective with the 2006-07 school term.  Once the brackets are established, they will be reviewed for travel considerations, and, after review, if any bracket of 16 has more than one game with a travel distance of 150 miles or more, the bracket of 16 will be placed in quadrants of eight.  If, though, the quadrant system does not eliminate more than ½ of all the trips of 150 miles or more, the bracket will remain at 16.
  2. The Board approved a number of  recommendations from multiple advisory committees. 
    1. Boys’ and Girls’ Bowling:  approved recommendations to eliminate lane blocks at sectionals, determine lane assignments for the first and second session of the state tournament by luck of the draw, establish the rotation pattern for Rounds 1 and 2 of the state finals, select the 6 at-large qualifiers for the state finals, and ensure that competitors are properly dressed for state series competitions.
    2. Competitive Cheerleading:  approved a recommendation to move the sectional and state final tournaments to weeks 30 and 31, on the IHSA standardized calendar, respectively.  In 2006-07, the sectionals will be held on January 27, 2007, and the state final on February 2-3, 2007.
    3. Boys’ and Girls’ Gymnastics:  approved a recommendation to establish a new procedure to determine the order of performance during the event finals in girls’ gymnastics.
    4. Boys’ and Girls’ Soccer:  approved recommendations to expand the starting times a manager could use for games on Memorial Day, designate a coach’s box for state series contests, and select and approve officials for designated state series contests.  The Board also approved a number of state association rules adoptions for the 2006-07 seasons.
    5. Boys’ and Girls’ Swimming:  approved recommendations to move up the starting times for the state swimming preliminaries, adjust the qualifying standards for the state finals, and clarify how sectional diving judges will be determined.
    6. Boys’ Wrestling:  approved a recommendation that will allow state final alternates to have skin and grooming checks with all other state finals qualifiers on the Thursday before the finals.
    7. Chess:  approved recommendations to alter the playing length of Saturday matches at the state finals, alter the pairing procedure at the state finals, and add a schedule of tie-break penalties for violations.
    8. Officials:  approved recommendations to amend the Officials Handbook in regards to probation procedures for officials, create a policy to address game fees and mileage for state series contests that are impacted by inclement weather, and make an official’s power rating available to officials on the IHSA web site.
    9. Scholastic Bowl:  approved a lengthy series of recommendations aimed at improving the management of the state series at all levels.
    10. Speech:  approved recommendations to identify the criteria needed to be named to the Drama and Group Interpretation All-State Cast and Crew and to reorganize the categories for Impromptu Speaking (in Speech Individual Events).
  1. The Board approved the association’s operating budget for the 2006-07 fiscal year.
  2. The Board approved a recommendation from the Executive Director to establish the classification cutoff for Class A and AA at 730 for the 2006-07 school term.  Schools with enrollments of 730 and below shall be listed as Class A, while schools whose enrollments are 730.01 and above shall be listed as Class AA.
  3. The Board approved a request from Peoria (Manual) High School to allow the school to compete as a Class AA school in all sports and activities during the 2006-07 school term, even though their enrollment would classify them as a Class A school.  The Board also established August 7, 2006, as the cut off date for other member schools to submit a similar request to move up a class for the 2006-07 school term.  IHSA staff will draft a policy regarding this ‘moving up’ concept for the Board to review at their August meeting.
  4. The Board approved a recommendation from Assistant Executive Director Susie Knoblauch to change the date and location for the 2006-07 IHSA Debate State Final.  Illinois State University will not be able to host during the school term due to on-going construction on their campus.  The dates for the Debate state final will be March 22-23, 2007, and the competition will be held at the University of Illinois-Springfield.  This event will also run concurrently with the IHSA Drama/Group Interpretation State Final, which is also scheduled to be held the same weekend at UI-Springfield.

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 items on this month’s agenda:

  1. The Board heard a report concerning those communities which submitted proposals to host the Class AA Boys’ Baseball State Finals for the next five years (2006-07 through 2010-11).  It is expected that the Board will take action on selecting a site at their August 7, 2006, meeting.  Geneva, Joliet, and Rockford each submitted a proposal for the event.
  2.  The Board heard a report concerning those communities which submitted proposals to host the Class A and AA Girls’ Soccer State Finals for the next five years (2006-07 through 2010-11).  It is expected that the Board will take action on selecting a site at their August 7, 2006, meeting.  Bridgeview Stadium, Bradley University, Lemont (H.S.), and North Central College each submitted a proposal for the event.
  3. The Board heard a report from the Executive Director concerning a recent change to the NFHS Strategic Plan and its implications for the future for the association and member schools.
  1. The Board heard reports from four sub-committees that were formed this spring to address some issues identified during the December 2005 survey completed by member schools.  Listed below is a synopsis of the reports from those sub-committees.
    1. Host Allowance and Reimbursement:  A number of increases for member schools that host IHSA state series events beginning with the 2006-07 school term were discussed.  Sports mentioned that could receive increases are cross country, golf, tennis, badminton, bowling, soccer, volleyball, baseball/softball, gymnastics, wrestling, and dual team wrestling.  IHSA staff was directed to review the increases and bring back final recommendations to the Board at their August meeting
    2. On-Line Seeding:  During the 2006-07 school term, the IHSA will pilot an on-line seeding program for selected bracketed team sports.  The pilot will compare how selected sectionals seed on-line prior to the regularly scheduled seeding meeting.  The results of the pilot program may be used to see if a more permanent on-line seeding system could be developed.
    3. Pass Gate:  A new Pass Gate policy that could be implemented during pre-state finals state series contests for IHSA member schools was discussed.  If approved in August, member schools will be able to access the new form on line through the IHSA website and forward it to state series hosts for pre-state finals tournaments.
    4. Seeding and Grouping:  The Board discussed proposals from the committee that would change the assigning format for bracketed team sports, beginning as soon as the 2007-08 school term.  The proposals discussed would create a hybrid system that would allow some schools within more geographically centered areas to be assigned to a sectional complex while other schools not located as centrally would start out at geographic regionals in state tournament play.