IHSA Board Approves Plan For Debate State Finals

As a result of the change, the IHSA will conduct the Policy Debate State Finals at University High School in Chicago on Friday, March 17, and Saturday, March 18th, 2023.

The State Finals for the Congress, Lincoln-Douglas, and Public Forum Debate categories will be conducted at Illinois State University on Friday and Saturday, March 17 and 18, 2023.

IHSA Assistant Executive Director Susie Knoblauch explained how the change will allow for greater participation in the Policy Debate State Finals.

“The IHSA and debate coaches across the state have been working intently on ways to increase participation in debate over the past few years. The Urban Debate League in

Chicago has strong representation from high schools in Chicago Public Schools, but travel issues and limited busses and resources often prevent these schools from participating in the IHSA State Series. We found that we traditionally have no schools south of Interstate-80 that participate in Policy Debate, so moving the State Final in Policy Debate to Chicago will allow for many more students to participate, while not enacting additional travel burdens on other participating schools.”  

ACTION ITEMS

1. The Board approved a new Board Policy that covers Name, Image & Likeness (NIL) rules. The Policy language currently states:
"IHSA By-law 3.084 permits a student athlete to earn compensation from the use of that student’sname, image, and likeness defined as “NIL Activity.” NIL Activity is subject to the followinglimitations:

1. The student may not use the IHSA name, logos, or trademarks in association with receivingthe compensation or imply that the IHSA approves of the NIL Activity as that term is definedin the By-law;

2. The student may not use the name, logos, mascots, or trademarks of any member school inassociation with receiving the compensation or imply that any member school approves ofthe NIL Activity;

3. The student may not use any member school’s facilities in association with the NIL Activity;

4. The student may not engage in any NIL Activity during school hours, while traveling to orfrom any IHSA event, or during an IHSA event including any practice, rehearsal, meeting,game, tournament, or any similar event that the Board deems inappropriate or distracting;

5. The student may not engage in any NIL Activity associated with gaming/gambling, alcoholicbeverages, tobacco, cannabis, banned or illegal substances, adult entertainment products orservices, firearms, or other weapons; or any other product or service that the Board deemsinappropriate or distracting; and

6. The student is responsible for determining what, if any effect, the NIL Activity may have oneligibility with the NCAA, NJCAA, and/or NAIA."

2. The Board approved the IHSA Board of Directors meeting dates for the 2023-24 school year:

-Monday, August 21, 2023

-Monday, September 11, 2023

-Wednesday, October 11, 2023

-Monday, December 11, 2023

-Wednesday, January 10, 2024

-Monday, February 5, 2024

-Saturday, March 9, 2024

-Tuesday, April 9, 2024

-Monday, June 10, 2024

ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS

Minutes from all Advisory Committees can be viewed by clicking here.

1. The Board approved the consent items from the Advisory Committees in the following sports & activities: Cross Country, Golf, Lacrosse, Tennis, Volleyball, Football, Athletes With Disabilities, Sports Medicine, Do What’s Right Sportsmanship, Athletic Administrators.
Consent items are recommendations that received approval from the sport/activity advisory committee, the Athletic Administrators Advisory Committee and the IHSA staff. Consent items can be viewed by clicking here.

Non-consent items are recommendations from sport or activity committees that did not receive a majority vote from the Athletic Advisory Committee or IHSA staff.
No Non-consent items were approved.

Some consent items of note include:

Boys & Girls Cross Country

1. Meet hosts may post unofficial live scoring/results at the Regional/Sectional/State meets. However, unofficial results may never be the basis for a protest or appeal. Once the meet referee has signed off/approved the race results, it will be posted and/or announced that the meet results are official. From that point, a period of not less than 15 minutes will be provided for coaches’ review of official results after posting and prior to going to the awards stand.

Boys & Girls Volleyball

1. Sectional managers will host a virtual meeting the day prior to the online seeding. Coaches will have the opportunity to update the entire sectional on their season.

APPEALS & ELIGIBILITY RULINGS

1. The Board sustained the Executive Director’s ruling on two students from Althoff Catholic High School in Belleville. The students were ruled to have limited eligibility in accordance with IHSA By-law 3.043.3, but appealed seeking full varsity eligibility.

2. The Board sustained the Executive Director’s ruling on a student from St. Patrick High School in Chicago. The student was ruled ineligible for non-compliance with IHSA By-law 3.040 and its sub-sections and has limited eligibility beginning July 1, 2023 through November 26, 2023.

3. The Board modified the Executive Director’s ruling on a student from Riverdale High School in Port Byron. The student was initially ruled ineligible for 365 days for non-compliance with IHSA By-law 3.030. The student will now have full eligibility beginning on March 19, 2023.

4. The Board heard an appeal from Herrin High School on the Executive Director’s decision to rule a varsity boys basketball game between Benton High School and Herrin High School on Friday, January 27, 2023, a double forfeit. The final 57.7 seconds of the game were not completed due to an unsportsmanlike act by a Benton player late in the contest that led to players from both teams engaging in physical altercations and leaving their respective benches. After the officials issued multiple ejections, a dispute between the coaches led the officials to call the game off. The Executive Director believed the dispute between the coaches prevented the game from being completed. The Board has modified the Executive Director’s decision and ruled the game to be no contest. The game will not count toward IHsA State Series seeding. Additionally, the Board ruled that the head coach of each team will be required to sit out their next varsity contest.

DISCUSSION ITEMS

At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain items the Board discusses, but upon which no action was taken or action may not be required. The following is a report of those items from the February 6, 2023, agenda:

1. The Board heard a report on the NFHS Officials Consortium on January 26-28 in Indianapolis.

2. The Board held a virtual conference call with coaches and administrators from several IHSA member schools regarding the future of the IHSA Boys Gymnastics State Series.

3. The Board heard an update on the IHSA’s candidates for the NFHS Spirit of Sport Award and NFHS Heart of the Arts Awards. The IHSA will be publicly releasing its nominees for the awards in the near future.

4. The IHSA is seeking to hire Production Artist-Social Media Assistant position to work out of its office in Bloomington.