11/14/18 – Board of Control Adjusts 2019 Fall Seasons, Sets State Championship Sites

November 14, 2018 2018-2019 News Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 14, 2018

During the course of its meeting at the KHSAA Offices on Wednesday, the Board of Control made adjustments to the 2019 fall sports seasons and finalized sites for this year’s State Baseball and Swimming & Diving Championships.

For the last several years prior to 2018, the soccer, volleyball and cross country seasons all culminated on the same weekend. With volleyball moving a week earlier in 2018 to avoid a conflict in Louisville with the Breeders’ Cup, the Association had the opportunity to reevaluate the structure of its seasons while also looking to alleviate concerns with competitions on ACT test dates.

With those factors in mind, the Board approved a recommendation to set the start of the 2019 Soccer regular season to begin in NFHS Week 6 (8/11-8/17) and end with the final regular season week in NFHS Week 13 (9/29-10/5). The 2019 Cross Country regular season will begin in NFHS Week 7 (8/18-8/24) and finish in NFHS Week 15 (10/13-10/19). Both the Soccer and Cross Country seasons will start and finish one week earlier than they did in 2018, according to the NFHS calendar.

Volleyball, meanwhile, will stick to its originally scheduled dates for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, per the corresponding dates calendar. The 2019 Volleyball regular season will begin in NFHS Week 7 (8/18-8/24) and finish in NFHS Week 15 (10/13-10/19).

“The shift in corresponding date calendars, which moves two of our outdoor championships later into the fall, combined with the necessary move this year for Volleyball due to the Breeders’ Cup, and the Breeders’ Cup conflict in 2020, provided an opportune time to review the scheduling situation for these important championships,” said KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett. “We are hopeful that these moves continue to enhance the participation experience for the student-athletes, coaches, administrators and fans.”

The Board of Control also made a slight revision to the State Field Hockey Tournament, to move its tournament format in line with every other KHSAA-sanctioned team sport. Previously, Field Hockey was the only KHSAA team sport in which regional runner-ups advanced to the state tournament. Beginning in 2019, only the regional champions will advance to the state tournament.

Championship sites were also addressed on Wednesday, with the Swimming & Diving State Championships awarded to the University of Louisville in 2019 and the University of Kentucky for 2020.

“We are blessed to have two extremely capable and willing sites to host our State Swimming and Diving meets, which come at a tough time for these universities as their athletes are involved in their own postseason events and these great facilities were built primarily for their use,” said Tackett. “With the expansion to forty competitors in all events, it requires a great deal of time and resources to ask them to commit to our student-athletes and potentially take away from theirs. It is our hope that by utilizing both universities over a multiple-year period, we can show our appreciation to those schools by recognizing the needs of their athletes as well as ours.”

In addition, the Board approved a recommendation to extend the Association’s agreement with the Lexington Legends for one year to hold the State Baseball Tournament at Whitaker Bank Ballpark in 2019 only and review options for future years at a later meeting.

“Our relationship with the Lexington Legends is outstanding and our students enjoy playing on that field as a reward for their hard work. High school baseball coaches and student-athletes have no bigger fans and supporters than Legends GM Andy Shea and VP for Facility Operations Gary Durbin,” added Tackett. “As other facilities come in line with possibilities of hosting the event, we will need to evaluate them fully and then let the Board make this tough hosting choice in future years.”

In other action Wednesday, the Board:

• Directed staff to bring back alternative alignment proposals for Golf to the January meeting with a goal of 144 to 156 golfers in the state tournament, including any changes in team scoring or at-large qualifying.
• Placed the site selection for the 2019 State Softball Tournament on the agenda for the January meeting.

-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 280 member schools both public and private. The KHSAA sanctions 44 state championships in 13 sports and 5 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.