Lots of going on today after a bothersome drive up to State College in the rain.
Talking about the pending competitive cheer championship, but there is a LOT more coming after this.
The proposal to change the format of the PIAA volleyball championships from pool play at the quarterfinal level to straight, single-elimination bracket play has been tabled until the May meeting.
The Board will be addressing a heat-acclimation period before the start of preseason football practice. The item was supposed to come up on Thursday, but the Thursday session was abbreviated for a reception for outgoing executive director Brad Cashman. Friday’s session was taken up entirely by the interviews and voting for the new executive director.
The heat-acclimation proposal, which came out of the sports medicine advisory committee, is for a 5-day period during which only helmets may b worn and no actual on-field practice or position instruction can occur.
That will come up later in the meeting.
Actually, the heat acclimation proposal is coming up right now.
Immediately, District 7 and District 3 oppose the proposal, essentially saying that the 5-day period is unnecessary because players use helmets and shouldr pads all summer during workouts, as per recent PIAA rules changes.
In addition, the athletic directors association was unhappy to have this put in front of the board for immediate action. There’s a lot to discuss here.
The discussion now is whether to table the proposal or to send it back to sports medicine with some of the concerns of this propoal: the timing, the expense to schools (paid coaches would necessarily run the acclimation period), etc. Also, District 3 chairman Sam Elias said there are other options, such as limiting the number of practices per day, or having the first three days of practice without pads.
Sam Elias says this a great idea, but it needs to tweaked within the context of what schools do and what schools need.
The proposal will be referred back to sports medicine for further discussion and review. Not sure when it will return to the Board, but if it does not come back up in May it will be impossible to implement for this season.
Next up is the second reading of qualifiers and pairings for PIAA Championships for the next two-year cycle.
This could be interesting.
District 7 has raised a concern that in basketball, many first-round games match representatives of the same district (example: 7-1 vs. 7-5 in the opening round of basketball). Brad Cashman explains that PIAA has been trying to pair the tournament with geography in mind to reduce travel costs and lost school time.
District 10 chairman Wally Blucas has just blasted the east-west crossover games, saying that the travel is ridiculous on a school night. Needless to say, he’s pointing to this past Wednesday’s AAAA boys basketball semifinal between Cathedral Prep and Lower Merion that was played at Bald Eagle Area near State College. The schools were traveled 414 and 390 miles round-trip on a school night. Both teams returned home very late.
But in the end, he is making a back-door argument to bring back pure East-West brackets. PIAA president Rod Stone points out that the east-west ship has sailed, especially in Class AAAA where 144 AAAA schools are in the east and just 40 are in the west.
The falls sports brackets and qualifiers were approved on a second-reading basis.
Regional wrestling is up now. District 12 is not pleased with its proposed move to the Northeast Region in Bethlehem, with support from District 1, which will lose a PIAA qualifier should D-12 leave the Southeast Region.
Here comes the Middletown upgrade argument. Brad Cashman is pointing out that several schools, including Middletown in wrestling, requested late upgrades in classification. Those upgrades, though late, are approved by PIAA if the district committee approves the upgrade.
Stone said he doesn’t understand why districts approve such requests after the deadline. Brad responds that it has always been done administratively.
Some arguing over the basketball brackets was short-circuited by a suggestion by School Boards rep Eric Wolfgang to let the process play out, pass the qualifiers and pairings on a second-reading basis, and allow the winter sports steering committees, which meet on Thursday, to hash out any problems, then return their recommendations to the Board in May.
And that’s what happens. Winter sports pairings pass, with District 1 objecting, on a second-reading basis. That means the fur will fly on Thursday the PIAA office, both in basketball and wrestling. I’ll be there.
Spring sports qualifiers and pairings pass without a word. When are we going to have a big fight over a spring sport?
Discussion now on PIAA by-law amendments. Now discussing third and final reading on the definition of public and private schools.
You’ll recall that PIAA has tried to define the definition of public schools by call them “boundary schools.” Private schools were called “non-boundary schools”. Charter schools and cyber schools were essentially defined as private schools even though they are public school creations.
There have been months of discussion on this, and the definitions have been revised several times.
That’s all moot now. By a unanimous vote, the Board decided to drop the definitions in favor of a committee to continue studying the issue. In other words, the long-standing status quo remains the status quo on the public-private issue.
Meeting is wrapping up. I’m heading over to Bryce Jordan Center where I’ll provide frequent updates on the Steel-High vs. North Catholic Class A girls championship. Might do a chat, might just update (looks like I’ll be writing a story for the Patriot-News; unfortunately, Andy Shay had car trouble en route to State College.)
I’m out. Thanks.
