CHAPEL HILL– The North Carolina High School Athletic Association Board of Directors completed its winter Board meeting on Thursday at the NCHSAA offices without too many major changes, but one big item of news for its future leadership.
The Board voted to drop the “interim” tag and named Que Tucker as the commissioner of the NCHSAA. She will receive the standard four-year commissioner’s contract. Tucker had been named the interim commissioner in May after Davis Whitfield resigned to take a position with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) in Indianapolis.
“This is a significant day in the life of the NCHSAA,” said NCHSAA president Maurice Green, superintendent of the Guilford County schools, “and we look forward to Que’s leadership in the coming years. She has done a terrific job as our interim commissioner.”
In other items approved by the Board:
–approved 2015-16 action budget
–noted that total funds to member high schools included $1,446,622.02 distributed in 2014-15. The average since 2010 returned to NCHSAA membership has been $1.1 million annually.
–approved provision of minimum stipend in the amount of $500 each to schools hosting live football (including season just completed) and $350 each to schools hosting live basketball games televised by Time Warner Cable SportsChannel
–approved authorization by Board of Directors for representative of NCHSAA to negotiate for and contractually bind agency to a funding request to town of Chapel Hill, and also approved submission of funding request application from NCHSAA to town of Chapel Hill for 2016-17
–approved recommended language relative to physicals in rule 1.1.8: “in order to be eligible for practice or participation in interscholastic athletic contests, a player must receive a medical examination once every 395 days by a physician licensed to practice medicine, nurse practitioner or physician assistant and be cleared to play.” This provides additional time period to allow student to procure physical.
–approved 2016-17 sports calendar as presented
–approved that the 10-day skill development period for football be allowed to start after spring sports regular season play and ending prior to the exam dead period for each individual school/LEA, providing more flexibility to schools. Effective for spring of 2016
–approved allowing two certified coaches to coach at regional and state competition –approved allowing a conference, if desired, to cap the third game of the junior varsity volleyball match at 15 points instead of 25
–proposal from basketball coaches association to include the use of the MaxPreps rankings to seed teams within each of the tiers (number ones, twos, etc.) rather than using overall winning percentage—tabled by committee and this year will be looked at to see how this might have effected seeding for this season
–approved requirement that two licensed athletic trainers or certified first responders to be in attendance at all summer seven on seven football contests that have three or more teams in attendance
–approved recommendation that the eight-quarter rule may be used only once per week, inclusive of postponements, for junior varsity players, and charged staff to explore alternatives and possible changes to the eight-quarter rule in general
–approved regional supervisors of officials, based on recommendations from various search committees in each of these instances, including Keith Shields—Northwest (baseball); Mike Tester—Northwest (softball); Mike Parnell—Cape Fear (baseball); Billy Sebrell—Cape Fear (softball); Michael Nye—Jacksonville (baseball); Roy Turner—Eastern (basketball); Jack Embree—East Central (wrestling); Tim Sappenfield—West Central (wrestling)
–approved incident and penalty report
–approved ejection report; total number is down by 52, all categories are down except for flagrant contact and leaving bench; total to date is 329, with 118 for fighting
–approved increasing NCHSAA annual registration fee for officials by six dollars per sport; has not been increased in 11 years and will help to cover first class mailings of rule books and help with move to ArbiterSports registration data base. Effective date May 15, 2016.
–The Board had received requests from Cardinal Gibbons and Hickory High Schools for consideration in terms of classification, for Cardinal Gibbons to be placed in 4-A (Gibbons is currently 4-A but would be 3-A in new realignment model) and Hickory asking to be placed in 2-A, as it was the smallest 3-A school. The Board reviewed the information provided by the schools, since, according to the constitution, it does have the authority to place schools in classification based on a number of factors. It placed Gibbons in 4-A but denied the Hickory request.
