Thunder Basin High School, tie-breaking procedures, the 2A/1A State Basketball Tournament, and other State Championship Events were the topics of discussion at the Winter 2016 meeting of the Wyoming High Activities Association Board of Directors Meeting.

Thunder Basin High School: The Bolts will have athletic competition, when the school opens in August 2017. The problem is that the new 2-year reclassification cycle starts in August 2016. For football, the Board decided that TB will be placed in Class 4A. The Board also wanted to maintain the current format of certain number of teams in each Classification of football. (10 in 4A, 12 in 3A, 14 in 2A, 14 in 1A, the rest in 6-man). As a result of this decision, starting in 2017, for football only, those schools that are right above the cut-off line between classifications for 2016, would drop down in 2017. Evanston would drop from 4A to 3A, Buffalo from 3A to 2A, Big Horn from 2A to 1A, and Lingle-Ft. Laramie from 1A to 6-man (Lingle-Ft. Laramie is supposed to be 1A in 2016-2017, but opted down to 6-man. They will be ineligible for the playoffs in 2016, but would be eligible in 2017, thanks to TB coming into the picture). As for all other sports, TB will be placed in 4A, and there will 13 teams in 4A, for the 2017-2018 school year. 4A Volleyball, 4A Basketball, 4A Soccer, and 4A Wrestling would be granted 1-2 more days of competition, to work TB into their schedules, but no extra tournaments could be added on. One question is, does 4A stay in the East-West format, or switch to North-South? THIS IS NOT YET OFFICIAL! This is the most likely scenario, and the WHSAA is going to talk to all schools about this, in case they over-looked something. A final decision will be made at the next Board Meeting in April.

4-way Ties: To break a 4-way tie, and all other tie-breakers established by the WHSAA and/or the coaches of the conference have established fail, first check to see if one team beat the other 3. If not, then all 4 teams have a coin flip. Keep flipping until the end result is 3 heads 1 tails, or 3 tails 1 heads. The odd flip of the coin is the loser and moves down. For the remaining 3 (assuming all other tie-breaker rules fail), if one team beat the other 2, then that team moves up. If not, teams will do a 3-way coin flip, with whichever team winding up with the odd flip of the coin, being the loser and moves down. Revert to head-to-head tie-breaker for the other 2 teams, but if that and all other tie-breakers fail, conduct a coin flip, and the winner is the higher seed.

Football Tie-Breaker Play-In Games: This will be eliminated starting in 2016. If there's a 3-way tie, (Team A beat Team B, B beat C and C beat A) and one or 2 of the teams involved will end up missing the playoffs, and all other tie-breaker rules fail, then it will be decided by a 3-way coin flip. The odd flip of the coin is the loser and is eliminated. Use head-to-head result for the 2 remaining teams. Long story short, a team can make or miss the playoffs on the flip of a coin. The purpose is reduce the risk of injury to player, because he would have to play 4 quarters in week 8, 4 quarters in the tie-breaker play-in game, 4 days later, and then 4 more quarters in the first round of the playoffs 4 more days later. This is a first reading item, and must undergo another reading to make it official.

Drones: Not permitted at athletic events or competitions. It's the school's decision on using them as far as practice is concerned. This is a first reading item and must undergo another reading to become official.

2016 2A/1A State Basketball Tournament: It won't be official until after February 20th, but there's a good possibility that Casper College will be hosting the women's Region 9 tournament, and that creates a conflict with the 2A/1A State Basketball Tournaments. The Region 9 Tournament would run from Tuesday, March 1 -  Saturday, March 5. This was determined by the Region 9 committee and the host site doesn't have a say in the matter. The only other team that has a chance to host is Gillette College. Casper beat Gillette on February 3rd by 8 points, and the 2 teams have to play again on February 20th at Gillette. GC would have to win that game, AND by 9 points or more to win the tie-breaker vs. CC, provided nothing else happens before then. The 2A/1A State basketball tournaments run from Thursday, March 3 through Saturday, March 5. In past years, games have been played at both the Casper Events Center and at Casper College. If CC is unavailable for the first 2 days of the 2A/1A State Basketball Tournaments, the backup plan is to use the gym in Douglas. According to Commissioner Ron Laird, on the first day of the tournaments, 2A will play in Douglas, and 1A at the Casper Events Center. On the second, they reverse. The reasons are that Natrona's gym is unavailable, due to the 4A West Regional Tournament, Kelly Walsh is unavailable due to construction and not enough room for parking, and Glenrock is unavailable due to the 3A East Regional Tournament. Once construction at KW is completed, the new gym may be bigger than CC's.

State Golf 2017: 4A at Evanston, 3A at Douglas, and 2A at Big Horn/Tongue River. It is their turn in the rotation.

State Cross County 2017 and 2018: The meet will be held in Sheridan. Star Valley had put in a bid with more money up front, but not enough lodging in the SV area was a concern to the board.

State Nordic Ski 2018: Laramie will host. It is their turn in the rotation.

State Soccer 2018 and 2019: Jackson will host both 4A and 3A. It was a 4-year bid, but the board decided to settle for 2 for now. Other bids were submitted by Rock Springs/Green River, Sheridan and Laramie.

National Federation of High Schools: Wyoming has an opportunity to have a member serve at large for 3 years on the NFHS Board, but they have to be of minority race, per National Rules. Owen St. Clair of Wyoming Indian, could be that person chosen by the WHSAA board, however rules state he must be a part of the WHSAA Board when he starts his term on the National Board, and St. Clair's term on the WHSAA Board expires at the end of this school year. The WHSAA Board has made a motion to extend St. Clair's term for 1 year, so he could qualify for the NFHS Board.

Future reclassification: With concerns about legislative funding for schools, due to the decreased energy revenues coming in, early talks have started about changing up classifications. The current format as well for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years, is the top 12 enrolled schools in 4A for all sports but football, the next 16 in 3A, the next 20 in 2A and the rest in 1A, while football is 10-12-14-14-the rest. It is still very early in discussions.

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