OHSAA extends ice hockey, softball state tournament contracts

The following are highlights of the monthly Ohio High School Athletic Association board of directors meeting that was held on Thursday morning at Columbus. The OHSAA contributed this report.

• The Board approved 10-year contract extensions with Nationwide Arena in Columbus and Firestone Stadium in Akron to host the OHSAA’s state tournaments in ice hockey and softball, respectively, through 2027.

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• The board approved the new two-year divisional breakdowns for the swimming and diving, boys tennis and girls and boys lacrosse tournaments. The divisional breakdowns are posted at: http://www.ohsaa.org/School-Resources/Divisional-Breakdowns/2017-18. The board tabled the divisional breakdowns for bowling, baseball, softball and track & field until the September meeting.

• Since the board’s June meeting, five member schools were penalized for committing infractions of OHSAA bylaws or sports regulations. The list of infractions and penalties is always included in the complete meeting minutes.

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• Due to recent Ohio legislative action, the board approved a modification to OHSAA bylaw 4-8-1 to add Exception 4, which allows schools that have had on-campus dormitories prior to 2014 to permit interscholastic sports participation for international students who reside in those dormitories and posses an F-1 visa.

• The board reviewed the schedule for the upcoming OHSAA New Administrators Workshop (Aug. 15) and the Regional Update Meetings (September). Details for the New Administrators Workshop are posted at: http://bit.ly/2vSs1SK, while the Regional Update Meetings are posted at: http://bit.ly/2fvO1vw

• The board approved the tournament regulations for all fall sports except cross country, which was tabled until the September meeting. The tournament regulations for the other fall sports will be posted on the respective sport pages at OHSAA.org.

• The board approved a modification to OHSAA General Sports Regulation 9.2.3, which reverts back to the former wording that permits sticks to be used in field hockey and ice hockey conditioning programs.

• The OHSAA Foundation Student Leadership Conference will be held Tuesday, October 3, at the Archie Griffin Ballroom at the Ohio Union at The Ohio State University. The annual conference welcomes 1,500 students, making it the largest student leadership conference in the country.

•Due to job changes in three of the District Athletic Boards, there are now three DAB vacancies that will be filled by those districts. They include the Class A representative in the Southeast District, the Class AAA representative in the East District and the Class AAA representative in the Central District.

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