WHSAA Board of Directors Fall Meeting #2 Results

Here's what was discussed at the second WHSAA Fall Board of Directors Meeting.

Small School Football #1: There will be 14 teams in 6-man in 2013, and only 11 in 1A. Wyoming Indian, Saratoga and Normative Services will drop down, and St. Stephens will join the 6-man division. 6-Man will be divided into East and West conferences, instead of North-South. The East will consist of NSI, Hulett, Kaycee, Midwest, Guernsey, H.E.M. and Saratoga. The West will have Little Snake River, Farson-Eden, St. Stephens, Wyoming Indian, Dubois, Meeteetse and Ten Sleep. That leaves 11 teams in 1A (6 in the west and 5 in the east). Scheduling issues will be discussed at the statewide scheduling meeting on November 6th.

Small School Football #2: The WHSAA says the intent of bringing in 6-man football was to give smaller schools a chance to form a team or at least have a team if 11-man wasn't working due to low numbers. But when is too many teams too many? If more teams drop down, there won't be enough left to have a 1A division, and the remaining teams would have to play in the 2A ranks.That's a topic that will be discussed at the scheduling meeting with 6-man and 1A coaches. Ideas being tossed around include drawing a line at school enrollment where a team is either 11-man or 6-man. Another idea is the possibility of 8 or 9-man football.

Basketball Mercy Rule: Passed on 2nd reading. At any time during the 2nd half of a game, the lead is 40 points or more, the running clock rule will take effect. If the lead gets above then drops below 40, the running clock rule continues.

Soccer Contest Proposal: Passed on first reading that teams will be limited to 14 regular season contests. A 1-day 160 minute jamboree will count as 2 contests, with a maximum participation of one regular season tournament/jamboree per season. A player may not participate in more than 3 halves per day, unless there are 2 contests on the same level scheduled on the same day. The rationale used by the WHSAA is that this creates more opportunity for the athletes to improve their skills and get recognized by colleges. Going to tournaments will help athletes get more exposure and increase the ability for coaches to vote on all-state. The northwest district voted against this move, due to few teams in the NW Wyoming.

Football Start Date: The board unanimously defeated a proposal that would've pushed back the start date of 4A practice by 3 days. Currently, 4A practice starts 1 week before other teams. This knew proposal would've made them wait 3 more days to start practice.

Dance: On second reading, the board passed a proposal to add 2 more categories to the State Spirit competition...Jazz and Hip-Hop.

State Volleyball Tournament: Ideas are being tossed around about changing some of the start times of games during the state volleyball tournament. One idea going around is on the first day, the first game would start at 2pm and not 3pm as before. Then on the last day, the 3rd place games would start at 2pm instead of 1:30pm, to allow teams more rest to prepare. Then all 4 championship games would be played at the same time, starting at 4pm.