Brice Stewart, Principal at Maroa-Forsyth, Joins IESA Board; State Track Meet to Start One Hour Earlier; Walkovers at State Wrestling Finals Eliminated

The IESA Board of Directors summer meeting was held on Friday, June 19. Brice Stewart, Principal at Maroa-Forsyth Middle School was seated as the Division I representative replacing Jerry R. Birkey who retired as principal at Mt. Zion JHS earlier in the month. Mr. Stewart's term will run through January, 2017.

Two significant changes were made by the Board. They approved a change to the starting time of the state track and field meet and changed the format of the IESA state wrestling tournament. The state track and field meet will now have the field events starting at 11:00 a.m. instead of 12 noon. Running events will still commence at 1:15 p.m. It is anticipated that this will reduce the number of conflicts and allow those field events that start at 11:00 to be completed before the running events begin. The change to the wrestling format involves cross bracketing and walkovers. Wrestlers will now be cross bracketed and the walkovers have been eliminated.

In addition to the above two changes, the Board also acted on recommendations from the advisory committees in Scholastic Bowl, Music, Track and Field, Wrestling, Volleyball, Bowling, Officials, and Staff Relations as well as tied up other loose ends.

Advisory committees are composed of coaches, administrators, and officials with expertise in the respective sport or activity. Each sport/activity has an advisory committee and generally meets once a school year. The advisory committee reviews the Terms and Conditions, administrative procedures and all other aspects of the sport/activity and makes recommendation to the Board of Directors.

Scholastic Bowl: A change was made to the tie breaking procedure for pool play at the regional level. The matches that are held between the tied teams in a given pool will now consist of five (5) toss up questions and the accompanying bonus questions. Before the change, there were only three (3) toss-up questions and the accompanying bonus questions. There were several minor administrative changes to the state series that were approved.

Music: The Board did not approve a recommendation to increase the solo fees. They did approve a recommendation to move the entry deadline for music organizational contests to the same date as the solo and ensemble contests; that the audience in attendance cannot be cleared from a room at the performer's request; and a vocal performance may be transposed to a different key.

Track and Field: In addition to the earlier start time, the Board received three other recommendations. They approved the changes to the 2016 qualifying standards. These will soon be posted on the IESA website. They also approved a recommendation that individuals/relays will not be added to the state meet if the omission is reported more than 24 hours after the state track qualifiers have been posted or Wednesday at 4:00 p.m., whichever is later. The Board did not approve a recommendation to add a second alternate for each relay.

Wrestling: As mentioned previously, the Board approved a recommendation that the wrestlebacks be cross bracketed with no walkovers. Wrestlers who previously met will now re-wrestle. They modified a recommendation by the committee relating to the minimum number of varsity matches needed to be seeded. The committee recommended that 10 varsity matches is the minimum number needed by each wrestler at each regional in order to be seeded. The Board modified the recommendation so that 8 varsity matches are needed to be seeded. The Board did not approve a recommendation that matches wrestled in a bracketed tournament do not count toward the maximum of 37 matches in a season. The maximum number of IESA matches that any wrestler can wrestle prior to the beginning of the state series remains at 37. This includes all matches wrestled at any level---j.v. exhibition, varsity, etc.

Volleyball: Several changes were approved to the Volleyball Terms and Conditions. Warm-up periods will now mirror that of the IHSA. The warm-up period shall be a 2-6-6 format. The first two minutes shall be shared time, the next 6 minutes shall be for the home team on the entire court, and the last 6 minutes shall be for the visiting team on the entire court. For regional games held during the week, no match may begin before 4:30 p.m. and no team may play in more than two matches in any one day for the state series. State series host schools must provide the volleyballs that are used for warm-ups.

Bowling: Several recommendations were approved. The Board approved a slight change to the Friday time schedule. The field will be limited to the first 160 boys entered and the first 160 girls entered. Any shift not filled will be opened to those entries on the waiting list. Ten teams will now advance to the finals---previously only 8 teams advanced. Clarifications were made to acceptable attire that maybe worn while participating in the state finals. Ties will no longer be broken unless it is for a qualifying position or for 1st place individually. An alternate may now be used during the game but no additional substitutions are allowed until the next game begins.

Officials: The Board tabled a recommendation to hire a coordinator of officials in girls basketball, boys basketball, and girls volleyball. They did approve increasing the starter's fee at the track sectional to $175 and changing the fee for wrestling regional officials to $160 per official and the sectional officials fee to $150.00.

Staff Relations Committee: The Board approved a recommendation to reemploy and set salaries for the Executive Director, Associate Executive Director, Assistant Executive Director; approved the contract for the newly hired Assistant Executive Director; and approved compensation for all support staff for the 2015-16 school year.

Other Business:

State Final Sites - The Board approved all of the state final sites for the 2015-16 school term. The lineup of state final sites is posted on the IESA Web Site www.iesa.org. Click on State Hosts and Dates under Activities.

Assistant Executive Director Report - Mrs. Cochran informed the Board of the schools who won the Division Sportsmanship Award. The listing of schools winning the award in 2014-15 can be found on the IESA Web Site at www.iesa.org by clicking on the Division Awards icon in the Sportsmanship Section Section of the IESA home page.

Executive Director Report - Mr. Endsley informed the Board that a claim submitted to the IESA insurance carrier resulted in a reimbursement to the Association. He updated the Board on the status of memberships that have been renewed for 2015-16; announced that contracts were signed with the Peoria Civic Center which will keep the cheerleading finals at the facility through 2021; and updated the Board about a meeting that was held with a representative from Caterpillar regarding potential sponsorship of the Scholar Attitude Award.

State Series Finances - The Board received financial reports for Scholastic Bowl, Music, Wrestling, Girls and Boys Basketball, Girls Volleyball, and Bowling.

Treasurer's Report - The Board received and accepted the treasurer's report ending May 31, 2015.

Chip Timing Proposals - The Board selected ShaZam Racing as the company to provide chip timing scoring for the IESA state cross country meet through 2019. Bids were received from River City Race Management and ShaZam Racing.

Membership Status for Schools Not Eligible for Recognition Status from ISBE - The Board made provisions whereby a school that is not eligible to receive recognition status from the ISBE may still be eligible for membership in the IESA. Schools will need to complete a form and submit it to the Association for final approval by the IESA Board of Directors.

Co-op request - The Board approved a co-op request in girls volleyball by Hardin Calhoun and Hardin St. Norbert's and a separate request for a girls volleyball co-op between Brussels and Brussels St. Mary's.

Division M Resignation - The Board accepted the resignation of Fred Lamkey, principal at Riverton Middle School, effective June 30. Mr. Lamkey has accepted a new administrative position outside of Division M. A replacement to fill the remaining term will be appointed before the September meeting of the Board.

Division Reports: At each meeting of the Board of Directors time is devoted for each board member to report on communication with and requests from the member schools in the member's division. In addition, Board members also may make observations regarding the operation of the Association. Following is a report of those from the June 19 meeting:

Division G - Mr. Lee was contacted by a school in his division expressing thanks to the IESA for conducting the state track and field meet. He also received an inquiry concerning whether the IESA would follow the lead of the IHSA regarding recent changes they made to their regional seeding process. No changes are planned for the IESA seeding process.