IHSA Announcements

October 14, 1997

Garber Re-Elected President of Board of Directors

BLOOMINGTON — Hoffman Estates (H.S.) principal Dennis Garber was re-elected president of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors at its regular October meeting Tuesday (Oct. 14) at the IHSA Office.

Garber, who is the 29th person to serve the Association as its president, has been a member of the Board since 1993. He was vice president from 1994-96, and was elected president for the first time in 1996. Re-elected vice president was William Wright, Savanna principal, and Monmouth (H.S.) principal Gary Collins was elected secretary. Collinsville principal Ron Ganschinietz serves as the appointed treasurer of the Association.

Election of officers came after the canvass of ballots in this year's Board elections. Katherine Flanagan of Chicago (Manley) and Patrick Sullivan of Roxana were re-elected to the Board for three-year terms. New to the Board is Michael Hawkins of Lexington, who was elected to a three-year term. The other member of the Board is Craig Zeck of Downers Grove (South).

Terms and Conditions Approved; Hitting Derby Set for Baseball, Softball

Recommendations to institute a hitting contest in boys baseball and girls softball were among Terms and Conditions changes approved by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors at its regular October meeting Tuesday (Oct. 14) in the IHSA Office.

The Hitting Derbies will be conducted at each state final tournament in baseball and softball and will involve hitters nominated from each of the regional sites. Preliminaries in baseball are scheduled to be conducted on Thursday evening prior to the respective Class A and Class AA State Finals. The baseball Hitting Derby champion will be determined on Saturday between the third place and championship games. Hitters will score points for where a batted ball first hits the ground for outfield fence. Hitters will have a maximum of 90 seconds to complete a maximum of eight (8) swings at twelve (12) pitches. Terms and Conditions for softball are still to be finalized, but the event concept is identical.

"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."

Recommendations and/or reports from seven advisory committees were acted upon by the Board. Following is a recap of the Board action Tuesday:

Boys Baseball

  1. Approved a recommendation that the National Federation speed-up rules continue not to be used in the state series.
  2. Approved a recommendation to require regional managers to appoint three umpires to the semifinal and final games, and to allow the host school in the preliminary and quarterfinal rounds to use a third umpire at the expense of the host school.
  3. Approved a recommendation to allow regional and/or sectional managers, in consultation with the IHSA Office, to alter the playing schedule in an effort to accommodate the regularly scheduled graduation ceremonies of a competing school.
  4. Approved a recommendation to increase fees paid to state series umpires.
  5. Did not approve a recommendation to admit students to the state final tournaments at a price of $1.00 if they are wearing their youth team and/or school uniform shirt, referring it instead to the staff and Athletic Administrators Committee for further study.
  6. Approved the terms and conditions for the IHSA Baseball Hitting Derby.
  7. Approved adoption of the 10-run rule for all regular season and state series games beginning with the upcoming (1997-98) season.

Girls Softball

  1. Approved changes in state final starting times. The state final schedule for each class will be: Friday quarterfinal Game 1 at 11:30 a.m., Game 2 at 1:30 p.m., Game 3 at 5:30 p.m. and Game 4 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, semifinal game No. 5 at 9:30 a.m. and No. 6 at 11:30 a.m. Saturday third place game No. 7 at 5:00 p.m. and Championship game No. 8 at 7:00 p.m.
  2. Approved a recommendation to require regional managers to appoint three umpires to the semifinal and final games, and to allow the host school in the preliminary and quarterfinal rounds to use a third umpire at the expense of the host school.
  3. Approved a change in the softball to be used in the 1998-99 state series from the Wilson white ball to the Wilson Optic Yellow ball model A9011.
  4. Approved a recommendation to increase fees paid to state series umpires.
  5. Did not approve a recommendation to admit students to the state final tournaments at a price of $1.00 if they are wearing their youth team and/or school uniform shirt, referring it instead to the staff and Athletic Administrators Committee for further study.
  6. Approved adoption of the 10-run rule for all regular season and state series games beginning with the upcoming (1997-98) season.
  7. Approved the terms and conditions for the IHSA Softball Hitting Derby.

Badminton

  1. Approved use of Thursday night for competition in the sectional tournaments if all schools involved agree to participate and, in such cases to use Tuesday night for the seeding meeting.

Boys/Girls Soccer

  1. Approved the automatic entry of the Chicago Public League representative into the girls state final beginning with the upcoming (1997-98) series. Winners from seven sectionals will join the Chicago Public League winner in the quarterfinals of the state final tournament.

Boys/Girls Track and Field

  1. Approved changes in the qualifying standards in both the boys and girls series. The changes will be published in the Terms and Conditions.
  2. Approved use of either manual (MT) and fully automatic (FAT) times in the qualifying standards in the running events at the sectionals. For races up to and including the 200-meter dash, the conversion factor will be to add .24 seconds. For races longer than 200 meters, the conversion factor will be to add .14 seconds.
  3. Moved the starting time of the Saturday opening ceremonies in girls track to 11:00 a.m. and the start of field events in both classes will begin at 11:30 a.m.

News Media

  1. Approved a recommendation to add a section to the Board of Directors Meeting Policy which provides that media be excused from the meeting at times when the board deliberates concerning personnel, litigation and acquisition or disposition of real estate.
  2. Did not approve a recommendation to include discussion of the Flash Photo Policy in the rules interpretation meetings conducted by IHSA. The Board authorized the IHSA staff to pursue development of a video on the administration of IHSA activities which would include policy requirements such as the flash photo policy, and other requirements.
  3. Did not approve a recommendation that schools consider starting time(s) for week night football games be moved forward and that doubleheaders in which the first game cannot end so that the varsity game begins no later than 7:30 p.m.
  4. Approved a uniform interview process for coaches in the team sports state series which requires coaches to participate in a post-game interview with the winning coach appearing first and the losing coach second. This procedure will apply to all games throughout the respective team sport state series.
  5. Did not approve recommendations to print record books on a regular basis. All-time state and all-time state series records are currently on the IHSA Web Site at IHSA.org on the World Wide Web.

Sports Medicine

  1. Received the report of the committee's April 24 meeting. There were no recommendations.

Athletic Administrators

  1. Accepted the report of the October 8 Athletic Administrators meeting. There were no recommendations.

Eligibility Decisions

  1. Sustained the Executive Director's ruling that a student is ineligible at Kankakee (McNamara) until March 21, 1998 for noncompliance with the transfer rule. He transferred from Donovan to McNamara. His parents did not move their residence to a new school district in conjunction with his transfer. The principal at Donovan did not approve the transfer as required by the by-law.
  2. Sustained the Executive Director's ruling that a student is ineligible at Oak Park (O.P.-River Forest) for the 1997-98 school term for noncompliance with the residence By-law 3031.2.
  3. Sustained the Executive Director's ruling that St. Charles High School be placed on probation in Boys Soccer through the 1998-99 school term and that its head boys soccer coach be suspended from coaching at the first two games of the 1997-98 Boys Soccer State Series for violation of By-law 5.111.

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 October, 1997, agenda:
  1. State Series Criteria: The Board received a preliminary report requested from the IHSA staff of potential criteria for adding and/or deleting state series.
  2. Add A. Tude™ Sportsmanship Promotion: The Board heard a report of policies and procedures being developed in conjunction with the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) for the use and presentation of the new mascot. The Board also heard a report of the mascot's debut at the Statewide Sportsmanship Summit, of the promotion and sales campaign of the Add A. Tude™ candy bars by Bloomington-based Kathryn Beich, Inc., and of the use of Add A. Tude™ on all state final T-shirts. A special line of Add A. Tude™ apparel and other related sportsmanship items is expected to be launched later this school year.
  3. Amendment Review: The Board heard a report of proposals to amend the Constitution and By-laws that have thus far been submitted to the IHSA Office for this year's regular annual referendum process. The deadline for submission of proposals this year was Oct. 14.