05/10/23 – Board of Control Accepts Reports of Member Survey Results, State Legislation, Officials Licensing

May 10, 2023 2022-2023 News Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 10, 2023

The KHSAA Board of Control conducted its final regularly scheduled meeting of the 2022-23 academic year on Wednesday in Lexington, accepting reports of several member surveys and ballots regarding both new and existing championship sports and sport-activities, as well as reports of Kentucky state legislation and officials licensing. 

After officially approving the adoption of girls’ wrestling for the 2023-24 academic year during last February’s Board meeting, on Wednesday the Board approved the return of the KHSAA Wrestling State Championships to Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington through 2024-25 to be held as a three-day event each year.

The Board approved the adoption of boys’ and girls’ tennis team state championships in the spring, along with the existing individually bracketed tennis tournament, beginning with the 2023-24 academic year. The Board also approved sponsoring a boys’ volleyball, boys’ lacrosse and girls’ lacrosse state championships beginning in 2024-25, following confirmation of school commitment to participate. The Board also voted not to adopt a shot clock for boys’ and girls’ basketball. 

The Board accepted a report to authorize the reformatting of the KHSAA Swimming & Diving State Championships, including the solicitation of first-round sites with a plan for the division of teams and regions to be presented for final adoption at the September 2023 Board meeting. Each of the actions regarding these sports was founded in data from multiple data-gathering surveys submitted by member schools over the last several weeks.

The Board approved additional first-round sites for the Leachman GMC-Buick-Cadillac/KHSAA Golf State Championships for 2023, 2024 and 2025. The Board’s goal is to establish at minimum a three-year advance rotation to assist coaches in future planning for course access leading up to the events.

As it looks toward realignment during the 2023-24 school year, the Board also directed staff to revise football competition rules to eliminate playing up in class, effective in 2025, as well as resulting options to play down to balance class numbers. In addition, the Board authorized the Commissioner to adjust the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Baseball State Tournament should state site-scheduling conflicts occur.

The Board also reviewed a draft alignment of teams for cross country and track and field, with a plan to review any concerns about the alignment at its July meeting.

In a review of the status of state legislative regulations, the Board accepted a report from Top Shelf Lobby, as well as reports on the implementation of 2022 Senate Bill 83, 2023 Senate Bill 145, 2023 House Bill 331 and 2022 Senate Bill 6.

The Board received an officials licensing comparison, an ArbiterSports update, a recap of the ongoing implementation of a new program to assist in training new officials and regulatory changes to officiating policies.

“The spring meeting is always a great chance to wrap up the year in high school sports and sport-activities,” said KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett. “It was an extremely successful year but also very important as our member schools help chart our strategic direction for the next several years. We always see better long-term decisions when our entire membership is engaged versus smaller samplings or small groups. This has been a great move by our Board over the last decade and ensures the involvement of all schools, no matter where they are located. With more than 80% of our schools responding to almost all of our surveyed issues, we are so much better informed of the needs of current and future students.”

Additionally, the Board reviewed and accepted the following reports:

• A discussion of KHSAA Bylaw interpretations and amendments;
• 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;
• A status report of participation lists and annual Title IX reports, with only one school failing to meet reporting deadlines;
• An update on candidacy member schools, as well as potential issues with existing members;
• A transfer and eligibility report;
• Individual sport and sport-activity reports and non-sport-related reports from staff;
• Information from around the state and nation.

The Board deferred action on the placement of WEB DuBois and Grace James Academies until a later meeting during the next school year.

– 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.