Player discipline plays big role in NCHSAA winter meetings

The Daily Reflector

Thursday, December 04, 2008
CHAPEL HILL — 

During the NCHSAA winter meetings, player health took top billing. But behavior control a close second was.

So far this school year, ejections numbers are down. One of the biggest declines is in football.

One year ago, the NCHSAA decided to crack down on fighting and taunting. During the 2007-08 year, officials were told to pay close attention to the infractions and to respond harshly, according to board member Si Simmons.

Last year’s high ejection numbers, he said, led to less instances of fighting and taunting this year.

During the last football season, there were 210 ejections. So far this year, with two playoff rounds left to play, there have been only 107 ejections.

During Wednesday’s voting session, the NCHSAA board made a change to the handbook in a continued effort to deter fighting.

In previous year’s under the Sportsmanship heading, a team would lose its right to participate in the playoffs if “players or coaches accumulate more than three individual ejections for fighting” and if “six players on one team are ejected during one fighting incident.”

The board voted unanimously to change the rule to three individual ejections for fighting and four players during one incident.

For any ejection, athletes will have to complete an online STAR Sportsmanship program starting next school year. The online program takes about 50 minutes to complete for the athlete’s version and about 20 minutes for the coach’s version, according to Simmons.

BASKETBALL SCHEDULE

In an effort to lessen the overlap of fall and winter sports, the NCHSAA board voted to move back the start date of the winter schedule for the 2009-10 season.

The start of practice will be moved from Nov. 2 to Nov. 9. The first play date of Nov. 16 will remain the same, but teams do not have to play on that first week, according to board member Bobby Guthrie.

In order to replace missed games should a team opt out of the first week, schools may now schedule up to four games in a single week for two weeks during the regular season. One stipulation, however, is that the fourth game must be on a non-school day.

This change, Guthrie said, also allows for a four-round tournament during the holiday season.

Dates for the playoffs, including regional tournament and state championship games, will be unaffected.

PRICE BUMP

Another change to basketball for the 2009-10 season is that ticket prices to regional basketball tournaments will now cost $9 instead of $8.

TENNIS CHANGES

For the 2009-10 season, tennis teams may now play up to four matches in a single week, instead of three. The fourth match must come on a non-school day. This change would be the same as what is currently the rule in softball, baseball and volleyball.

In another action passed by the board, more tennis teams will make the postseason.

In the 2-A, 3-A and 4-A ranks, 48 teams will qualify for the playoffs instead of 32. In Class 1-A, 24 teams will make the postseason instead of 16.

Teams will qualify for finishing first or second in their conferences, and all others will be placed as wild cards.

SOCCER PROPOSAL

Soccer coaches wanted the NCHSAA to require all teams to keep updated information on the Eurosportscoreboard.com Web site. Failure to do so would result in a fine/penalty by the NCHSAA, the proposal stated.

The board did not vote on the item because it did not want to mandate that teams be required to use a for-profit scoreboard Web site, NCHSAA president Charlie Adams said.

PAY INCREASE DECLINED

A pre-approved $5 pay increase for volleyball officials will not go into effect for the 2009-10 season.

COACHES CLINIC SET

The N.C. Coaches Association announced that next year’s clinic will be July 20-23.