02/23/15 – Bylaw 23 Waivers for Wrestling

February 23, 2015 Wrestling Blog Updates

With the necessary postponement of the KHSAA Wrestling State Championships to March 10-11, 2015, questions have arisen as to allowances for teams to continue practice and preparation for the state tournament. Several factors are involved including weight maintenance (although athletes should be wrestling at or near natural weight), and how to keep a high level of  competitiveness over the course of the next two weeks. After much discussion the following waivers have been granted by the Commissioner to accommodate the schedule change, for 2015 only!

Initial Weight on March 10

• A one-pound growth allowance for each weight class will be granted for the first day of the tournament, March 10.
• An additional pound will be granted to each class for those wrestlers remaining in the tournament on March 11.
• Per NFHS rules, no other allowances will be granted.

Practice

• Schools that have wrestlers who have qualified for the State Tournament (including alternate fifth place regional finishers) may continue to practice.
• Other members of the team, on a strictly voluntary basis, may also continue to practice during this time with the team.
• No activity can be mandatory for any competitor who is listed on a spring sports roster for that school.
• This practice may also be individual work and workouts with competitors at other KHSAA wrestling schools who meet the same requirements.
• These practices ARE covered by the KHSAA Catastrophic Insurance plan as this is an approved waiver of Bylaw 23 by the Commissioner.

Competition

• Member school wrestling teams may enter up to three (3) additional competitions (as school teams), including allowable travel, accompaniment by coaches, uniforms, etc., between February 23 and March 8.
• For each of these school-based competitions, weigh-in sheets must be produced (using trackwrestling.com) prior to the event in order to verify eligibility to enter a desired class.
• The default weigh-in for the class (i.e. 108 for the 106/108 class) should be entered after the event to allow for the recording of match results.
• No further descent plan data will be relevant, including an excess weight prior to March 10, and it will be up to individual competition sponsors as to eligibility to enter a weight class.
• These school-based competitions ARE covered by the KHSAA Catastrophic Insurance plan as this is an approved waiver of Bylaw 23 by the Commissioner.
• This waiver is not required and does not apply to athletes who may enter competitions as individuals during this time period, provided that the restrictions of Bylaw 23 are complied with (no school uniforms, transportation, coach assisted travel, others contained in case situation BL-23-6). These individual competitions ARE NOT covered by the KHSAA Catastrophic Insurance plan.

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 277 member schools both public and private. The KHSAA sanctions 43 state championships in 13 sports and 4 sport-activities, licenses and trains over 4,000 officials, provides catastrophic insurance for its more than 70,000 member school student-athletes, as well as overseeing coaching education and sports safety programs.