Tony Ingold Re-Elected as President of IESA Board of Directors; Contract with Rawlings Sporting Goods Company Extended; Baseball and Softball Starting Dates Revised

During a very busy quarterly meeting, the IESA Board of Directors approved an extension of the ball adoption agreement with Rawlings Sporting Goods Company; elected officers; approved a recommendation to allow baseball and softball games to start three days earlier than previous years; and tied up other loose ends at its regularly scheduled meeting that was held on February 15, 2019. The meeting was originally scheduled to be held January 25 but due to severe winter weather, the meeting date was postponed.

Prior to the conclusion of the meeting, Board members Mrs. Young, Mr. Haupt, and Mrs. Marquardt canvassed the election ballots and certified that the results of the Board of Directors election were accurate. Dr. Darryl Hogue (Division B); Dr. James Mitchem (Division D); Mr. Antonio Johnson (Division F); Mr. Tony Ingold (Division H); and Ms. Dana Isackson (Division J) were all re-elected to the Board of Directors. After the meeting was adjourned sine die, the re-elected members were seated and election of officers took place. Tony Ingold, Superintendent at East Peoria District #86 was re-elected President of the IESA Board of Directors. Also re-elected to officer positions were Chris Graham, Principal at St. Joseph who will serve as Vice-President and Dr. Steve Stuart, Principal of Edwardsville Lincoln who will serve as the Secretary-Treasurer.

Rawlings Contract

The ball adoption agreement the IESA signed with Rawlings Sporting Goods Company five years ago was set to expire at the end of the 2018-19 school year. The Board approved a new three-year contract with Rawlings that will keep Rawlings as the official ball of the IESA through the 2021-2022 school year. "I am pleased to announce to the membership that our agreement with Rawlings will be extended for three additional years," said IESA Executive Director Steve Endsley. "Rawlings continues to invest in the students and schools of the IESA and our new agreement will allow the IESA to provide balls free of charge to the schools who host activities in the sports of girls softball, boys baseball, girls and boys basketball, and girls volleyball. I encourage all of our member schools to support Rawlings just as they are supporting the schools, students and the IESA. I thank Rawlings for their continued commitment to the IESA."

Starting Dates for Girls Softball and Boys Baseball

The Board approved a committee recommendation to allow the girls softball season and boys baseball seasons to start three days earlier than previous years. With the approval, the girls softball season can now start on Wednesday of week #5 in the standardized calendar instead of Saturday of week #5. Starting this fall of 2019, softball games may begin August 7. Similarly, boys baseball games may now begin on Wednesday of week #6 instead of Saturday of week #6. Starting this fall, baseball games may now begin on August 14.

Activity Committee Action

Baseball -- In addition to approving the new starting date for contests, the Board approved a recommendation to allow one day for ranking teams for seeding purposes and moved the first day of the quarterfinal regional contests from Tuesday to Wednesday. They modified a recommendation that would require a player found guilty of using an illegal bat to be suspended for the remainder of the game in which the illegal bat was used plus the individual’s next game to just an ejection for the remainder of the game in which the illegal bat was used. Click on the following link to see the Board action on the committee recommendations:

https://www.iesa.org/documents/advisory/IESA-BBB_Minutes.pdf

Cheerleading -- The Board approved both recommendations the cheerleading advisory committee presented. Click on the following link to see the Board action on the committee recommendations and the minutes of the meeting:

https://www.iesa.org/documents/advisory/IESA-CHR_Minutes.pdf

Cross-Country -- The Board approved a change to the time schedule of the state meet. In essence, the start times for the classes will rotate from year to year. The schedule for 2019 will be exactly the same as it has been in previous years with 1A starting at 9:30 a.m. followed by the 2A schools and then the 3A schools; in 2020 Class 2A will be the first to run at 9:30 a.m. followed by 3A and then 1A will run last; and in 2021, class 3A will run at 9:30 a.m. followed by 1A and then the 2A schools. Click on the following link to see the Board action on the other committee recommendations:

https://www.iesa.org/documents/advisory/IESA-CC_Minutes.pdf

Emerging Activities -- The Board approved a slight revision to the wording of the emerging sports policy to clarify the procedures schools would follow to begin the discussion on the addition of an activity to the IESA state series.

Golf -- The Board approved a cart policy for head coaches at the state finals and approved weather delay policies for the sectional and state finals tournaments. In addition, an administrative recommendation to set the 2019 final entry deadline for golf entries to August 16 and the roster deadline to August 26 was approved. Those two dates will float depending on the date of the golf state finals. Click on the following link to see the Board action on the committee recommendations:

https://www.iesa.org/documents/advisory/IESA-GO_Minutes.pdf

Softball -- The Board did not approve a recommendation to allow 22 girls on the regional entry form. Click on the following link to see the Board action on the committee recommendations:

https://www.iesa.org/documents/advisory/IESA-GSB_Minutes.pdf

Speech -- The Board approved the Distinguished Service Award Winner and the Class Act Award Winner. Named Distinguished Service Award winner is Susan Niendorf of Frankfort Hickory Creek and named the Class Act Award Winner is Susan Lipcaman of Mt. Sterling St. Mary. Click on the following link to see the Board action on the committee recommendations:

https://www.iesa.org/documents/advisory/IESA-SP_Minutes.pdf

Other Business Items

Scholar Attitude: The 21st annual Scholar Attitude Award luncheon will be Tuesday, April 30, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. the DoubleTree Hotel in Bloomington. Only one student from each of the 15 membership divisions will be selected. The deadline for receipt of nominations in the IESA Office was Feb. 15. Judges will meet in the IESA Office March 20 to select the winners.

Treasurer's Report: The Board received and accepted the treasurer's report for the fiscal period ending December 31, 2018 and January 31, 2019.

Board Meetings: There are two regular meetings remaining in the 2018-19 school year. One is scheduled April 5, 2019, and the other is scheduled June 14, 2019.

Executive Director’s Report: Mr. Endsley reported on the office computer upgrade; gave a report on the NFHS Winter Meeting he attended; informed the Board on HB 330 that was introduced that would have changed the organizational structure of the IHSA but was not called to committee; and announced that the NFHS will be forming a national Middle School Committee to study the role of athletics at the middle school level of which he and Mrs. Schaefbauer will participate.

Eligibility of Students in Non-Athletic Activities When Repeating a Grade: The Board approved changes to the by-laws that would not allow students who are repeating a grade to participate in non-athletic activities during the retention year. Previously, the wording of the by-law applied only to athletic activities. With the change, no student who is repeating a grade who participated in a given activity the previous year will be allowed to participate in the same activity (athletic or non-athletic) during the retention year.

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 meeting:

Division H---Mr. Ingold was contacted by a parent regarding questions used in a regular season scholastic bowl match. The information was forwarded to the IESA administration.

Division I---Mrs. Marquardt inquired about the current IESA transfer policy which allows a transfer student to become eligible upon his/her 11th day of attendance at the new school. After discussion by the IESA Board, the transfer policy will be discussed by the Athletic Director’s Advisory committee when they meet and the administrative staff with a possible revision of the policy to be presented to the Board of Directors in April.

Division L---Mrs. Young was contacted by a school regarding the requirement that cross- country sectional hosts sell IESA merchandise. Given that host schools receive a portion of the sales at the sectional, no action was taken to change the requirement.

Division O---Dr. Stuart was contacted by two schools regarding the cheer competition and weather. This year’s competition was held despite some weather issues and as a result some schools were not able to attend.