IHSA Announcements

April 28, 1998

Board Approves Terms and Conditions Changes in Five State Series

BLOOMINGTON — Changes in Terms and conditions for five state series were approved by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors at its regular April meeting Tuesday (April 28) in the IHSA Office.

"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 action Tuesday:

Boys Football

  1. Approved a recommendation for a new method of determining a school's football enrollment for purposes of classification in the playoffs. Beginning in the upcoming (1998) playoffs, a school's football enrollment will be determined this way:
    1. Obtain the actual enrollments of every opponent, eliminate the largest and smallest of those enrollments and average the remaining enrollments.
    2. Using the school's actual enrollment, split the difference between the school's actual enrollment and the opponent's average enrollment.
    3. Use the larger of the school's actual enrollment or the split of the difference between the school's actual enrollment and the average of the opponents.
For example, School A's nine opponents have an average enrollment of 1000. School A has an actual enrollment of 700. The split of the difference figure is 850. The school's football enrollment will be 850, which is the larger of the actual enrollment and the split the difference enrollment. Say School A's nine opponents have an average enrollment of 600 and School A has the actual enrollment of 700. The split of the difference figure in this instance would be 650. The school's football enrollment will be 700, which is the larger of the actual enrollment and the split the difference enrollment.

Earlier this year, the football advisory committee recommended that all public schools use their actual enrollments and that all non-public schools use the old football enrollment. The Board of Directors rejected that recommendation and directed the Football Advisory Committee to reconvene and create a more equitable vehicle for determining the football enrollment for all participating schools.

According to a review of the classification of schools in the 1997 (last year's) series using the new football enrollment formula, 11 schools would have participated in a higher class and 11 would have participated in a lower class. A total of 32 teams compete in six different classes in the playoffs.

Boys/Girls Basketball

  1. Approved recommendations to alter the ticket policy for Happening qualifiers at the Class A and Class AA Boys State Final Basketball Tournaments.
  2. Tabled a recommendation to change the price of super-sectional game tickets to $5.00 each. The Board then instructed the administrative staff to review existing ticket pricing in all state series, and the host school revenue distribution formulas.
  3. Accepted the report of administrative procedures, which included the change to begin the team Shoot Around at noon on Thursday prior to each state final tournament.

Girls Bowling

  1. Approved a recommendation to alter the individual qualifying procedure from the sectionals to the state final. The top four individuals who are not members of a qualifying team will advance from each sectional to the state final. The old 1080 score for at large qualifying has been dropped.
  2. Approved a recommendation to make all participants in the state final tournament eligible for individual honors. Previously, only bowlers qualifying for the individual portion of the state final were eligible to become the individual state champion. Now all bowlers on the qualifying teams and the four individual qualifiers from each sectional will bowl for the individual honors.
  3. Approved a recommendation to allow coaches of teams competing for team honors to substitute between games. Previously, coaches could substitute only between rounds.
  4. Approved a set of the penalty provisions for coaches in the competition area.

Boys/Girls Swimming and Diving

  1. Approved a recommendation to allow swimmers to use a certified lead-off relay time for seeding purposes in the sectional.
  2. Approved changes in the girls qualifying times in the 200 medley relay to 1:54.09, in the 100 freestyle to :55.19 and in the 100 breaststroke to 1:09.89.
  3. Tabled a recommendation to change the fee structure for officials working at the state final meets.

Boys Wrestling

  1. Approved a recommendation to eliminate the dual team regionals and change the individual regionals to a double elimination format in order to determine regional champions for competition in the dual team series.
  2. Approved a recommendation to limit participants in the individual tournament Grand March only to qualified wrestlers, their coaches or certified school personnel.
  3. Rejected a recommendation to award medallions to the members of each team advancing to the dual team state final tournament(s).

Athletic Administrators

  1. After rejecting a recommendation that all participants in team state final tournaments receive participation awards, the Board directed the administrative staff to develop a plan to provide a consistent form of participation recognition to every student who participates in an IHSA state final tournament/meet, and to develop a means to fund the plan.

Officials

  1. Approved a recommendation of a penalty procedure for failure by a member school to comply with the requirement to submit an officials rating form to the IHSA Office for varsity sport(s) in which the school enters the state tournament series. Schools found to be in violation shall receive a letter of reprimand and the principal/official representative will be required to investigate and reply to the IHSA Office what corrective action has been taken.
  2. Tabled a recommendation to implement a position of coordinator of officials at each state final and consideration for implementation of an Observers Program.
  3. Tabled a series of recommendations to adjust officials reimbursement for lodging at state final events, state series mileage, and state series game fees.

Other Action

The Board took the following action regarding the general business of the Association:
  1. Re-employed the administrative and non-administrative staff for the 1998-99 school year. Authorized the Executive Director to make changes in non-administrative staff to accommodate expansion of existing programs and activities, and reorganization of administrative staff assignments.
  2. Accepted the report of the Private School Financial Aid action team regarding criteria for approval of financial aid programs, and awarding non-need based financial assistance.

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 April, 1998, agenda:
  1. Budget: The Board received the proposed 1998-99 Budget for consideration. The Board will act on it at its June 10, 1998, meeting.
  2. Strategic Planning: a) The Board heard a report of the recent statewide meetings regarding the non-school competition/coaching schools action team's rough set of proposals. b) The Board received the report from the action team established to pursue the strategy to increase and improve two-way communication between the IHSA Office and member schools, and instructed the administrative staff to implement its recommendations. c) The Board received the report from the action team established to pursue the strategy to provide more equitable promotion and recognition of interscholastic activities.