Coaches, advisory committees work to help proposals pass

August 22, 2012 by Jose Garcia, AZPreps365


It took more than a year for Arizona’s high school wrestling community to get to Monday’s big vote.

In the end, the wait was worth it. Wrestling coaches and administrators worked on a proposal to improve their wrestling sectionals and help students not spend too much time away from the classroom while they compete for a spot at state.

That proposal was unanimously passed during this school year’s first Arizona Interscholastic Association’s executive board meeting on Monday. The wrestling advisory committee, comprised of athletic directors and coaches, used the feedback it received from its coaches to write the proposal.

“For about a year we listened to what the coaches wanted,” said San Manuel’s Alfred Trejo, the wrestling advisory committee’s chairperson. “The proposal was the best thing for right now. If in two or three years we need to tweak it, then we’ll change it.”

Participating in one day sectional tournaments, qualifying four wrestlers from each weight class for the sectional tournaments and increasing the wrestling divisions from three to four are the biggest changes wrestlers and coaches will see when they hit the mats this school year.  

Postseason proposals from the basketball, soccer and volleyball advisory committees didn’t pass on Monday, but AIA executive board president Art Wagner said that those committees can continue to adjust their proposals.

“The AIA staff put together the financial analysis for each respective proposal, and those proposals, along with the analysis, were presented to the board at the August study session,” said Brian Bolitho, the AIA’s director of business media.

Last year, during the annual legislative council meeting, 12 changes that were recommended by the advisory sports committees were implemented.