The Arizona Interscholastic Association wants a committee to review and possibly modify its non-participation bylaw.

The recommendation came after Mesa District Athletic Director Dr. Steve Hogen, Gilbert District AD Steve McDowell and Tempe District AD Bruce Kipper raised potential issues with the wording of the bylaw Monday during the first school year meeting for the AIA’s executive board.

“We are not looking to change (the bylaw) right now, but we don’t want kids to be penalized for things that are common practice,” Dr. Hogen said.

At the center of discussion is what constitutes a practice and a private session while an athlete is training with a non-high school instructor.

The use of personal trainers by high school athletes continues to rise. It’s even common for some athletes to train with their instructors during their high school seasons.

But the AIA found itself in court defending the prior contact bylaw, which is closely associated with the non-participation rule, and eventually rewording it after some families challenged the rule during the last school year. The athletes of those families were allegedly recruited during private sessions.

Under the latest version of the non-participation rule, Dr. Hogen gave examples of how students might be inadvertently violating the rule.

If two softball or baseball players from different high schools were to flip a ball to each other during a fielding drill with a private instructor, that would be considered a violation.

Or if a quarterback threw a pass to a wide receiver from a different high school during a private session, that also would be a violation. Dr. Hogen, Kipper and McDowell, who were representing the Arizona Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association during the meeting, said they polled close to 200 athletic directors to gauge if the non-participation rule should be changed.

Fifty percent were in favor of a change and 25% percent weren’t. The other 25 percent abstained, with some stating they didn’t know the rule well enough.

Schools that were in favor of changing the rule represent rural and metro areas.

Executive director report

The following are notes from the report of AIA executive director David Hines:

--More than 1,830 coaches attended the mandatory fall sports meetings.

--New AIA executive board president Jeanine Brandel and new vice president Toni Corona attended the annual National Federation of State High School Associations summer meeting in Indianapolis along with AIA staff members.

Brandel and Corona said they were each impressed with how the AIA is a national leader in many areas.

--The upcoming hardship appeal dates are on Sept. 3 (including football) and Sept. 11.

--The 2019-20 state tournament assignments for boards members were given.

--Mingus Mountain Academy and ASU Prep withdrew from the AIA.

--The AIA’s Sport Medicine Advisory Committee is recommending that every school will need to file an Emergency Action Plan with the AIA. The EAPs also need to be visible on campuses.

Financial report

An eight percent reduction in gate receipts led to a budget shortfall for the AIA during the 2018-19 school year, said Denise Doser, the AIA’s director of finance. The high costs of securing some state semifinal sites and low attendance also led to the shortfall, Hines added. To help correct this, some state tournament semifinal games will be held at the schools of higher seeds instead of neutral sites during the 2019-20 school year.

eSports update

The board approved the games that students can play during the eSports kickoff seasons for Arizona’s high schools.

A timetable with more information will be sent to schools on Sept. 2 about the 2019-20 eSports calendar. The video games students can play this school year are Rocket League, League of Legends, Super Smash Brothers and sports genre games such as NBA 2K, Madden and FIFA.

Media rights update

For postseason broadcasts, entities that wish to webcast or telecast a postseason event have two options, said Seth Polansky, the AIA’s sports information coordinator.

The first option is purchasing the rights. If the NFHS Network declines to produce an event, the AIA can allow those rights to be acquired by another entity.

And if that entity purchases the rights based off the chart located on the media rights agreement, they will own non-exclusive rights for that event and allow it to be broadcast on the platform of its choosing.

The second option is for the entity to become a media affiliate with the NFHS Network. In this scenario, the outlet will be granted exclusive rights to the broadcast, and the outlet may broadcast in the manner of its choosing.

But all the content must reside on the NFHS Network platform at www.nfhsnetwork.com. In this scenario, consumers must subscribe to the NFHS Network to view the content. These media affiliates will also receive royalties associated with consumer signups for their events.

This applies to school/district programs, booster clubs, parent groups, and any other outside entity that wishes to broadcast a postseason event. This does not apply to schools that are a part of the NFHS Student Broadcast Program. Those SBP schools will have no charge and exclusive rights to broadcast their own events.

And all of this information only applies to postseason events, starting with the first round of a state tournament bracket or the sectional tournament round, and aligns the association with the contract it has with the NFHS Network.

The rights to the regular season belong to the member schools. All postseason radio/audio only content will continue to be free of charge.

Agenda items passed

The following agenda items were passed during Monday’s board meeting:

A hardship appeal from a Greenway High football player.

--Thirty-eight AIA lifetime passes to officials who each have served at least more than 21 years in AIA membership roles.

--Thirty-three contest and or program cancellation requests.

--A student eligibility appeal (paper review) and or request for hardship eligibility (age rule) by Flagstaff.

--Additional game requests from nine member schools.

--A recommendation to hold the AIA Legislative Council meeting on March 6, 2020. The deadline to submit an agenda item will be Jan. 24, and the agenda mail-out deadline will be Feb. 7.

--The 2019-20 advisory list of the Council of Standards for International Education Travel for student exchange programs.

Did not pass

The following agenda items failed to pass:

A student eligibility appeal (paper review) and or request for hardship eligibility (age rule) by Snowflake.

--Monument Valley’s request to hold its Pizza Edge cross country meet on Aug. 31, two days before the official start of the sport’s regular season.

--The requests from Chino Valley and Northland Prep Academy to allow their girls’ soccer programs to start training early so they can start preparing for an Aug. 30-31 tournament in Nevada.

--Perry’s request to allow its program to host the John Carlson Wrestling Jamboree for freshmen and junior varsity wrestlers on Nov. 23, two days before the competition start date.

School violations

Every month during the school year, the AIA’s executive board will review violations committed by schools and then assess a punishment.

The violations are self reported by schools.

Warning for Higley High’s football program. The football team conducted a blocking drill while learning plays during its 4th practice, a violation of the heat acclimatization protocol. Teams can’t begin blocking until the 7th day of practice.

Warning for Chaparral High’s spiritline program. Students were allowed to try out for cheer without a physical on file.

Warning for Salpointe’s spiritline program. A student athlete participated in cheer tryouts without athletic office clearance and register my athlete.

Advisement for Sedona Red Rock’s activities program. The program was unaware that a home-schooled 9th grader swam for its program last year without student paperwork on file.

Advisement for Desert Edge’s football program. After an investigation by the school, the school reported a recruitment violation. In May a former volunteer freshman assistant coach shared a video on social media he created, stating he “brought students to (Desert Edge) to play football.” The students started attending the school in 2017 as freshmen. The AIA alerted Desert Edge of the video. The school removed the coach from the program as part of its corrective action.

Warning for Yuma Catholic’s football program. No competition is allowed for football teams during spring football. But Yuma High discovered that some of its players and coach participated in a 7 on 7 at another school on May 7 and 15.

Warning for Yuma High’s football program. The team participated in a 7 on 7 game during spring football season.

The AIA accepted a violation report from ASU Prep, which withdrew as an AIA member. Teams at all levels can be disciplined if they decide to stop playing before the completion of a contest. In April, ASU Prep’s baseball team left the field before a game was over, because all of its pitchers reached their pitch counts. There is an AIA-mandated pitch count in baseball. The coach inserted a position player to pitch, but the player walked every batter he faced and didn’t throw a strike. The coach then took his team off the field.

Nine schools each received an advisement for failing to send a representative to the annual Athletic Director Information meeting on April 22 at Xavier College. The meeting is mandatory.

Eleven schools each received an advisement for failing to send a representative to the annual football coaches meeting on July 27 at Camelback High.

Five schools received a warning for failing to send a representative to the football coaches meeting. It’s the second time they’ve failed to send somebody to that meeting.

Abut the AIA punishments

An advisement is a word of caution.

A warning places a school in jeopardy of being placed on probation if another violation of any rule or regulation is committed. A school will not be eligible for the Overall Excellence Award during a warning period.

If a school or one of its sports programs is placed on probation, that school/program is ineligible for the postseason and will not receive any award for achievement in that sport. A school is not eligible also for the Overall Excellence Award during its probation period.