IHSA Announcements

July 21, 1997

Girls Softball Dates, Class AA Site Changed

BLOOMINGTON — The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors approved a change in dates for the girls softball state final tournaments and a change in the site of the Class AA state final at its regular summer meeting which ended Monday.

Beginning with the 1997-98 school year, the Class AA state final will be played at Northern Illinois University's field in DeKalb. The Class A state final will remain at Pekin's Mineral Springs Park. Pekin has been the site of both state finals since softball became an IHSA state series in the 1975-76 school year.

Both tournaments will be played on Friday and Saturday. The Class A state final will be June 5-6 and the Class AA state final will be June 12-13. In previous years, the state final was played on a Thursday-Friday schedule. The four quarterfinal games will be conducted on Friday, with the semifinals Saturday afternoon and the third place and championship game set for Saturday night. The following Monday will be used as a rain date.

"We anticipate both changes will be growth steps for the sport," said IHSA Executive Director Dave Fry. "The date change should allow fans from the competing teams, and softball fans in general, a better opportunity to make plans to attend the event. The site change for the Class AA schools moves the tournament closer to the majority of competing teams."

Fry praised the personnel at Pekin Community High School, the Pekin Park District and the community for its past support of IHSA softball. "We have conducted state tournament series in girls softball for almost 25 years now, and Pekin has hosted both classes all of those years. The hospitality exhibited by everyone in the community has remained outstanding through the years and we look forward to continuing the Class A Tournament there."

Other Action

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

  1. Added Face the World to the list of approved foreign exchange programs.
  2. Approved the IHSA Personnel Policy for the 1997-98 school year.
  3. Approved personnel to serve on the Private School Financial Aid Criteria Committee and approved Tellers for the annual fall elections.

Terms and Conditions

  1. Golf: Tabled a recommendation for addition of a fourth place team trophy and fourth place team medallions at the state final tournaments, pending a report and recommendations by the Athletic Administrator's Advisory Committee in the fall.
  2. Cross Country: Tabled a recommendation for addition of a fourth place team trophy and fourth place team medallions at the state final meets, pending a report and recommendations by the Athletic Administrator's Advisory Committee in the fall.

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 July 1997, agenda:

Water Polo State Series: Mundelein High School has submitted proposals to establish sport seasons for Girls Water Polo and Boys Water Polo for consideration by the Legislative Commission in November. A request to establish a state series in boys and girls water polo was also presented to the Board. The Board instructed the IHSA staff to study the proposals, and guidelines for adding or dropping state series, and report its findings at the next Board meeting (August 14).

Investigative Team: Among the recommendations of the Task Force on Public/Private School Issues which the Board previously accepted was that the IHSA's investigative efforts be enhanced. A vehicle to accomplish this is establishment of an Investigative Team, a standing IHSA group like the advisory committees. The Board discussed the means by which this could be accomplished. Included in the discussion was geographic representation of team members, use of both current principals and athletic directors, terms of members, criteria for procedures and methods of informing the membership of their role and responsibility.

Strategic Planning: Action teams are already working to address four of the strategies: increasing the number of registered officials, developing officials training programs, facilities needs and out-of-season participation/instruction. Discussion of the seven remaining strategies was to prioritize them. The remaining strategies include:
  1. reviewing present and future staffing needs
  2. increasing and improving the two-way communication between the IHSA Office and the member schools.
  3. reviewing sportsmanship programs and increasing participation by member schools
  4. increasing the number of women and minorities in all entities of IHSA
  5. reviewing IHSA's educational and informational programs and increasing attendance at those programs by official school representatives.
  6. providing more equitable promotion and recognition of interscholastic activities
  7. increasing the number of participation opportunities for students in IHSA activities
IHSA Centennial: The Board of Directors discussed possibilities of programs and promotions for the upcoming celebration of the association's centennial year.