02/22/23 – Board of Control Approves Adoption of Girls’ Wrestling

February 22, 2023 2022-2023 News Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FEB. 22, 2023

The KHSAA Board of Control conducted its fifth regularly scheduled meeting of the 2022-23 academic year on Wednesday in Lexington, approving the adoption of girls’ wrestling, the solicitation of a site to hold the boys’ and girls’ wrestling tournaments consecutively, specifications for KHSAA Golf State First Round sites and the election of the 2023-24 Board President-Elect.

The adoption of girls’ wrestling will be effective in the 2023-24 academic year. As a result of the Board’s approval, the KHSAA Commissioner has been tasked with finalizing logistics for a state championship in girls wrestling with two or four state-managed qualifying sites, as well as finalizing negotiations to find, if possible, a potential consolidated site following a survey of the membership on scheduling implications.

“We look forward to gathering data from our school athletic administrators on this important site selection,” said Commissioner Julian Tackett. “We have had some unfortunate situations at past venues where we were forced to find an alternate host for a couple of years, including impact from the pandemic. But we are thankful for a reset and an opportunity to certainly elevate the girls’ event from its operations the last couple of years outside of our management while re-energizing our boys’ event format at the same time. Having been around and managed the event during a period of historic growth during my time as an Assistant Commissioner in the office, I, along with our staff, realize the incredible potential for these two events to grow together and be even better in the future alongside one another.”

The membership survey will take place following this weekend’s state championships, with a final implementation plan to be considered in May.

KHSAA staff will continue to work with Golf House Kentucky regarding Golf State First Round future sites beyond 2023. Minimum requirements and recommendations for those sites will be posted on khsaa.org to allow for hosts to know in advance where these events will be held and to be able to have schools experience those postseason courses in earlier events.

At the fifth Board meeting of each year, the Board elects from its membership a president-elect to serve the following year, then transition to the president position in the next academic year. On Wednesday, the Board selected Raceland-Worthington Independent Schools Superintendent Larry Coldiron, who is currently in his third year of service representing Regions 15-16, as the 2023-24 Board President-Elect.

The Board also approved reports from the KHSAA staff that included the most recent triennial survey report of sport offerings, the distribution of fall sports team expenses and a financial report for July 1-Dec. 31, 2022.

In a segment of the meeting dedicated to direct input from membership, the Board declined to approve appeals of football alignment heard from representatives of Leslie County and Meade County. The Board approved a requested pilot project in Region 15 for the basketball and soccer postseason tournament formats that were necessitated by a reduction in the number of schools in that region.

Additionally, the Board reviewed and discussed the following reports:

• A lengthy legislative report and status report of regulations;
• Individual sport and sport-activity reports and non-sport-related reports from KHSAA staff;
• A report illustrating the impact of out-of-state play on the RPI calculation;
• An officials licensing comparison, ArbiterSports update and implementation of a new program, RefReps, to assist in training new officials and regulatory changes to officiating policies;
• A status report on Bowling Green in compliance with the June 2022 agreed order;
• A status report of the annual Bylaw 11 financial aid required reports;
• Information from around the state and nation;
• A transfer and eligibility report;
• An update on candidacy member schools.

The following items were reviewed for action at a later meeting during this school year:

• A strategic plan continued review for adoption in spring 2023;
• A historical review and policy discussion of the prime date basketball requirement and an update of information that includes potential adjustments to the calculations for future years to be finalized in May;
• Issues surrounding football alignment, including discussion of the “playing up” options for future alignments;
• State First Round event criteria for golf, volleyball and soccer sites and desired execution;
• A discussion of possible annual meeting proposals being discussed by the membership.

– KHSAA –

About the Kentucky High School Athletic Association

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association was organized in 1917 and is the agency designated by the Kentucky Department of Education to manage high school athletics in the Commonwealth. The Association is a voluntary nonprofit 501(c)3 organization made up of 284 member schools, both public and non-public. The KHSAA awards 215 state championships to 51 teams and 164 individuals in 13 sports and six sport-activities, funds catastrophic insurance coverage for its more than 106,000 rostered member school student-athletes, provides coaching education and sports safety programs for more than 12,000 coaches and licenses and facilitates the distribution of training material for over 4,000 contest officials.