OHSAA: Board of Directors meeting highlights

By Daniel B. Ross, Ph.D.
OHSAA Commissioner

COLUMBUS – The Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors met Oct. 18 at the OHSAA office in Columbus for its regularly scheduled October meeting. Following are highlights from the meeting (the complete set of meeting minutes will be posted at OHSAA.org):

• The OHSAA’s Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Committee announced that 27 member schools have met the “Respect the Game Challenge” and 24 member schools have received the Harold A. Meyer Award. A separate press release will be distributed in the near future that will name the award recipients. More information about the school sportsmanship awards program can be found at: http://www.ohsaa.org/news/Magazine/Winter2011/PG11.pdf.
  
  
• The financial report from the 2012 regional and state track & field tournaments was presented to the board. At the state tournament, the two-day total attendance was 27,277, which marked the third-highest attendance for the track state tournament in OHSAA history. Overall, the regional and state tournaments resulted in a profit of $24,360.
  
  
• Last year, the OHSAA formed a committee of coaches and school administrators to study out-of-season coaching and skill-instruction regulations. It is expected that the board will vote on a proposal from the committee in the near future after reviewing the proposal and gathering feedback from the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association and the various coaches associations.
  
  
• Seven member schools were recently penalized for committing infractions of OHSAA bylaws or sports regulations. The list of schools and their penalties is always included in the complete meeting minutes posted at OHSAA.org.
  
  
• The OHSAA and the Jerome Schottenstein Center at The Ohio State University have partnered to create 168 premium seats that will include various amenities will be sold for the 2013 boys basketball state tournament. Further details will be announced later this fall.
  
  
• The tournament regulations for the OHSAA’s winter sports were approved by the board and will be posted on the respective sports pages at OHSAA.org.
  
  
• The state tournament draw in ice hockey was held and will be posted at OHSAA.org. The regional and state draws for the girls and boys basketball tournaments were tabled and will be held at the next board meeting.