05/07/25 – Board of Control Selects 2025-26 President-Elect; Approves Competition Rules Amendment at Golf State Championships; Continues Consideration of Amendments to Bylaws 6, 7

May 7, 2025 2024-2025 News Releases

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 7, 2025

The KHSAA Board of Control conducted its final regularly scheduled meeting of the 2024-25 academic year on Wednesday in Lexington, selecting its upcoming President-Elect, approving a rules competition amendment at the golf state championships and continuing its work on development of membership proposals to amend KHSAA Bylaw 6 (transfer rule) and Bylaw 7 (foreign students).

Damon Kelley of Paul Laurence Dunbar was chosen as the 2025-26 Board of Control President-Elect by a unanimous vote on Wednesday. Kelley will follow in the footsteps of 2024-25 President-Elect Greg Howard of Warren County Public Schools, who is set to succeed outgoing two-time Board of Control President Matt Wilhoite of Kenton County Schools next school year.

The Board approved the usage of golf carts by the head coach of each qualifying full team at the golf state championships starting in 2025-26. One cart will be permitted for each qualifying full team at both the state first-round sites and the final-round site at Bowling Green Country Club.

Following two years of review, the Board authorized KHSAA staff to prepare a final proposal regarding potential Bylaw 6 and Bylaw 7 amendments that will be presented at the first regularly scheduled Board of Control meeting of the 2025-26 academic year in July. If approved, any potential proposal would then go before the delegate assembly at the Fall 2025 Annual Meeting in September.

“The Board has spent the bulk of the last two years reviewing the changing landscape of both school enrollment patterns and transfer restrictions throughout the country and now clearly has its sights set on finalizing a proposal for membership consideration,” said Commissioner Julian Tackett. “The Board will finalize that proposal development at its July meeting so a vote can be taken by the membership in September. Clearly, our members and constituencies do not want any form of a one-time, no-criteria, free transfer for every student athlete currently subject to Bylaw 6, so this research has been invaluable in identifying issues to help alleviate concerns about the rule without sacrificing key values around interscholastic athletics.

“Our golf coaches association has spent more than a year working with our staff to help fine-tune a proposal to deal with a long-standing concern about cart usage, especially when coaching a four or five-person team,” Tackett said.

The Board also discussed facility issues and bracket construction regarding the tennis state championships, as well as bracket construction and championship site considerations for the soccer state tournaments.

Wednesday’s meeting concluded with the recognition of outgoing Board Directors Marty Mills of Fayette County Public Schools (Regions 9-16) and Coy Samons of Murray Independent Schools (Regions 1-2), as well as outgoing KHSAA Supervisor of Officials Licensing Scott Bottoms.

“We are also excited for the great work of Mr. Kelley to transition to the President-Elect role as Mr. Howard moves to the President slot next year,” said Tackett. “We have been blessed with great leaders in the past and know that will continue, and we are thankful for the work of Mr. Wilhoite, Mr. Mills and Mr. Samons and their commitment to the member schools. We are also eternally grateful to Mr. Bottoms for his service and know that he will continue to be involved in many of our events and with our Association, simply from a different vantage point.”

Additionally, the Board accepted the following reports and items of discussion:

• A review of the 2025-26 timeline and parameters for football reclassification;
• The discussion of field hockey, boys’ volleyball and lacrosse state championship corresponding dates and schedules;
• A review of the Region 15 experimental basketball postseason format;
• The status of the upcoming Region 6 experimental softball and baseball postseason format;
• The status of Title IX and annual participation reports; and
• A final presentation by Bowling Green in compliance with the June 2022 agreed order.

 

– 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 290 member schools, both public and non-public. The KHSAA awards 229 state championships to 59 teams and 178 individuals in 13 sports and six sport-activities, funds catastrophic insurance coverage for its more than 109,000 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.

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