The Arizona Interscholastic Association recommended to expand the prior contact rule (15.12.4.14) for transfer students.

The AIA studied the prior contact rules of other state associations, including Tennessee, Michigan, Oregon, Utah and Colorado, to see how it can strengthen its own rule.

According to some of the recommendations the AIA made during Monday’s board meeting, a transfer student will not be allowed to play if he or she:

--Competed with a teammate on a club team and then transferred to that teammate’s high school.

--Attends a school’s open gym or weight room session at a school he or she wound up transferring to.

--Any type of personal offseason instruction/training the student received from an instructor who was part of the high school the student transferred to.

The AIA will send the recommendations to its conference leaders to review before sending them to the legislative council for a vote. If approved by the council in March, the AIA wants to immediately enforce the expanded rule under emergency approval by its board.

“I will be very honest with you (AIA board members),” AIA Executive Board Director David Hines said during the meeting. “If this doesn’t pass, I will come to you and ask to do away with the prior contact rule. This new language is really about educational athletics. This new language is what we should stand for.”

New football reclassification models presented

A reclassification committee will recommend soon which one of four models the AIA should use for football conference placement.

Joe Paddock, the AIA’s Assistant Executive Director, presented those models to the board Monday. Three of the models used the ratings of maxpreps to decide how far up or down teams would move.

A fourth model, adding a seventh conference to the state, used just the rankings instead of maxpreps' ratings. The seventh conference idea was just recently presented.

The first three models could potentially move a team up or down between one to three conferences. Two of the models, designated as Model 9 and Model 10, if used, would see the most movement.

Model 9 would only move a team up or down one conference. Model 10 would move teams one to two conferences.

If Model 9 was used, for example, to reclassify the current 5A conference, 13 5A football teams would move to 6A, and 21 would drop to 4A.

With Model 10, 18 5A teams would drop to 4A, and 10 would move up.

The third reclassification model, Standard Deviation, would see the least amount of movement.

The reclassification committee has also considered moving teams after every season.

Executive director report

There was a 200-plus increase in the amount of coaches who attended the mandatory winter meeting compared to last year, said Hines during his montly report to the board.

Among the other highlights of the winter meeting:

The AIA’s student leadership group gave a “phenomenal” presentation about the importance of fan, parent and coaching behavior.

A 20-minute presentation by Dr. Javier Cardenas, the director of the Barrow Concussion and Brain Injury center, also was very informative.

Hines also said that a panel discussion on educational athletics with coaches and officials “could not have been scripted any better.”

Also in Hines’ report:

--An update on the fall season winter champions was given.

--The AIA’s strategic planning committees are starting to meet. The board complimented Shay Pausa, a public relations partner of the AIA, for how she managed one of the meetings.

The next meetings for the four strategic planning sub committees will be held at the AIA on Nov. 29, Dec. 3, 5 and 6.

--An Arizona high school football team was contacted to potentially participate in the Geico State Championship Bowl Series. An announcement will be made after the 2-6A state championship games.

--The 10 weight classes are set for girls who will be participating in a season ending tournament for the first time.

Agenda items

The following are most of the agenda items that were passed Monday:

--Three AIA lifetime passes.

—The AIA sanction/intrastate and interstate activities 2018-19 master calendar.

--Forty-two contest and or program cancellations requests, including three varsity programs, 13 juniors varsity programs and seven freshman programs.

--Camelback’s student eligibility appeal (paper review) and or request for hardship eligibility (legal guardian).

--The student eligibility appeal (paper review) and or request for hardship eligibility (age rule) requests from Tolleson and American Leadership Academy Gilbert North.

--River Valley’s student eligibility appeal request.

--Fifteen additional game requests from programs.

--Two complimentary pass replacement requests.

--Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind’s request to allow its girls basketball team to participate in an extra tournament.

The board didn’t pass the following agenda items:

Desert Edge’s request to allow football coach Jose Lucero to coach in the Freshman Under Armour All-American games in Florida.

--Tanque Verde’s request to allow its girls’ basketball players to play more than six quarters a night since it only has 15 players in its program.

--Notre Dame’s request to also allow its players more than six quarters each night since it only has 12 girls’ basketball players. The school already dropped its freshman team.

Douglas football placed on probation; School violations

The board unanimously voted to place Douglas’ football program on probation because of decisions its coach made resulting in violations.

Students were allowed to practice without a physical or parent consent on file.

The program has 10 days to appeal the decision. The probation period is for one year, and a program on probation can’t participate in the playoffs.

The Douglas athletic program also received a warning. The program has reported several violations this year.

The school removed an athletic director from her post. Hines lauded the school’s new athletic director for getting the program back in order.

Advisement for the activities program of Catalina Foothills. A student transferred twice since the start of the freshman year without 530 and 550 forms filled out by her family and submitted to the previous and receiving schools.

Warning for the football program of Westview. Thirty-six players left the sideline to go near an on the field altercation during a junior varsity football game.

Warning for Chaparral’s activities program. A golfer didn’t have a completed physical on file.

Advisement for the football program of Yuma. A transfer football player practiced eight times and played in a game without transfer paperwork entirely filled.

Advisement for Boulder Creek’s activities program. The athletic director voiced his displeasure to officials about how the Boulder Creek-Liberty game was called.

Advisement for Payson’s football program. The head football and girls soccer head coaches failed to send a representative to the fall mandatory meeting for coaches. The wife of the head football coach was extremely ill, and the soccer coach drove her son to college on the day of the meeting.

Advisement for the girls soccer program of Payson. The coach allowed a student to play in matches after four practices. Student athletes are only allowed to play in matches after they’ve practiced six times, according to the heat acclimatization bylaw.

Advisement for the spiritline program of Bowie/San Simon. The school’s spiritline team had to withdraw from AIA competition due to injuries.

Advisement for the spiritline program of Liberty. The school’s all girls stunt team can’t attend the state state qualifier due to injuries.

Advisement for the boys soccer program of Rancho Solano Prep. The soccer team was down to five players for various reasons during a match it was still willing to play. But a team needs to have at least seven players on the field to play through halftime.