08/31/20- Clarifications Around Board of Control Approved Waiver of Bylaw 9

September 1, 2020 2020-2021 News Releases

REVISED 9/16/20 PER BOARD ACTION REGARDING BASKETBALL PRACTICE STARTING

As most school representatives are aware of information already distributed by this office following the meeting, the Board of Control approved a waiver of certain parts of Bylaw 9 for this fall. Normally, Bylaw 9 would normally preclude a student who had played basketball at any level (freshman, JV, or varsity) after enrolling in grade nine from participating in an outside organized contest in basketball from the first day of school until the end of the high school basketball season.

Due to the pandemic, students lost the ability to attend potential recruiting events during the summer with events either not being held or with college coaches not being able to attend. Bylaw 9 previously made exceptions for both boys and girls’ basketball team members to attend one-day events on an NCAA campus with specific restrictions.

For the 2020-21 school year, the restrictions have been eased for basketball (boys and girls) and students are permitted to attend events during the time period of the first day of school until the first legal date of practice (NOW 10/26/20) which meet the following restrictions:

• An event must be recruiting in nature, that being that the advance material and information surrounding events clearly indicate that the event will be recorded, webcast, live-streamed or using some other means including printed reports,  college coaches will be given evaluations or results by player;
• An event must be completed prior to the first date of organized high school practice;
• A high school coach may be involved in the activity or contests but only if 2 or fewer of his/her team members are involved in play;
• No more than two members of the same high school team may participate on the same unit in any activity or competition;

What this allowance for 2020-21 does NOT allow is:

• School vs. school organized competition following the first day of school but prior to the first organized day of practice regardless of location;
• Involvement of a coach in the organized competition if more than two of his/her players are involved in the recruiting activity or organized competition;

There was no change in the restriction against playing on an organized football team.