09/17/2014 – Proposal by Proposal Analysis of 2014 Annual Meeting Proposals

September 18, 2014 Athletic Department Blog Updates

This is the second part of a two-part effort to talk about the 2014 KHSAA Annual Meeting. Because of the vast turnover in athletic administrators this year, and in order to help you prepare, this information is being sent well in advance of this year’s meeting to allow for review and discussion. Please feel free to contact the office with any questions.

Final preparations are underway for the 2014 Annual Meeting at the Lexington Center on September 29. Staff is busily making final updates to the documents related to the meeting, and posting them on the KHSAA website with updates nearly every day.

During the morning sessions, there are three great workshops.

• Veteran Athletic Directors and sport-activity participants will have a panel discussion regarding adding new programs, including the obstacles you might face from school administration, your local board or school based group, and your community;
• Dan Schuester of the NFHS Coaching Education Department will conduct a great session updating the delegates about the  about options available for continued training and representatives of the NFHS Network will talk about opportunities to utilize the School Broadcast Program to enhance your school; and
• Damian Martinez, Educational Program Manager for the Taylor Hooton Foundation will present “Hoot’s Chalk Talk”, a research based presentation on the use of Appearance and Performance Enhancing Drugs (including over the counter dietary supplements) and anabolic steroids.

There are only four (4) proposals on the agenda to change the bylaws of the KHSAA this year. The Board has done its required due diligence and many of the possible proposals that were discussed were not formalized until further data can be gathers. The proposals are detailed at http://khsaa.org/annualmeeting/20142015/annualmeetingproposals.pdf. Two of these came from the Board of Control’s required Annual Review and those represent the very few issues that have arisen in the last year for which the Board seeks the approval of the schools in finding a remedy. Two of the proposals come from the member schools, with each of them designed to address a specific issue among the membership. Below is a detailed description of each of the proposals.

PROPOSAL 1 – Is a proposal from the Board of Control to make technical revisions to the foreign exchange rules of the Association. With the proliferation of F-1 VISA students (6,000 just a few years ago, nearly 100,000 last year), this is an area ripe for problems if not addressed on the front end. This proposal will ensure that ALL member schools are treated in the same manner with respect to F-1 students, these students will be afforded one and only one year of eligibility (if the required year of ineligibility is waived). Current Federal regulations create the situation where a nonpublic school enrolling multiple year F-1 students can have a significant athletic advantage over a public school. It is important for competitive balance, that these provisions remain the same. This ensures that domestic transfers and foreign exchange transfers are treated in a like manner. The remainder of the changes to Bylaw 7 are technical in nature.

PROPOSAL 2 –  Is a proposal from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School on behalf of the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches. This proposal attempts to correct an inequity where girls basketball players have a fall exposure opportunity not available to boys basketball players, without opening up the fall to full scale outside play. The change would allow boys basketball players to attend a camp after school has started (and through August 31, or the first few days of September if August did not end on a Saturday). These exposure events are technically “camps” within the Division I regulations, and afford students a chance to attend a full day of activities at a potential school, with only that school’s coaches in attendance, and be evaluated against like-talented students. This allows for the recruiting possibilities for the student, without allowing other leagues and entities that do not serve the same mission and purpose as school-based sport. While there are proponents for total elimination of the rule, discussion with many administrators and coaches leads to a consensus that fixing this problem for boys will help with the inequity without changing the allowances for girls (the one weekend in September per NCAA women’s recruiting rules) and without causing further issues.

PROPOSAL 3 – Is proposed by the KHSAA Board of Control to return the issue of practice while ineligible back to the local school level. This is the way the rule read for many years, with only transferring students having to wait while their eligibility was being determined. Much like the delegate decision a couple of years ago to allow the local school to decide when a student should be ineligible due to conduct issues, this change would allow the local schools, through its policies and procedures, to decide if a student who is academically ineligible or ineligible due to bylaws other than 6, 7 or 8, is allowed to practice. The restriction would still be statewide in that students who are not eligible due to transfer (Bylaws 6, 7 and 8) would not be able to practice in any official practice with the team.

PROPOSAL 4 – The final proposal comes from the Kentucky High School Athletic Directors Association. This group has worked tirelessly over the last few years to re-invent itself, and ensure that the perception and reality of the organization is one of professional development and improvement for the athletic administrator. Despite their key role in the conduct of interscholastic sports and in the lives of more than 74,000 young people who participate in high school sports and sport-activities, there are no standard requirements for Athletic Directors. In many parts of this state, this leaves the AD alone fighting to be treated as an administrative professional in the school and in the district, and leaves some to question the necessity for the position and its tasks. This first step would establish baseline criteria for ADs, leaving the hiring and compensation properly at the local level, but place continuing education in the Association requirements. Properly and adequately trained and updated ADs are a vital part of the conduct of the interscholastic athletic program, and vital for the successful participation opportunities for Kentucky’s students.

Hope to see you in Lexington!