Leading off today: By default, there's always something on anyone's to-do list that qualifies as the most pressing task. That was true as the New York State Public High School Athletic Association opened its annual Central Committee meeting, but there are no longer multiple contenders for that No. 1 spot as we head into the new school year.
With its work at the past two quarterly meetings, the NYSPHSAA has now mostly put two of the three biggest issues in the proverbial rear-view mirror: It won't move forward with a DEI-driven proposal that would have required changes to its constitution, and now it is moving forward with long-discussed changes to team-sport championship tournaments.
That clears bandwidth to finish what the Schools Without Borders ad hoc committee has developed thus far to deal with non-public and charter schools in the postseason.
Here's how we got to this point following two days of meetings in Schenectady:
• The "Three-Region Concept" is now "The Three-Region Format" by a vote of 25-22 on Tuesday. There will continue to be the usual field of up to 11 sectional champions in NYSPHSAA tournaments such as for soccer, basketball, and lacrosse. But an at-large team will be added under certain conditions, and sub-regional and regional championships will abide by a more consistent rotation of pairings and hosting opportunities.
The new approach kicks in this fall. Though some unanticipated scenarios figure to pop up in the first few years, the hardest work is now done and various committees will no longer be bogged down with signing off on proposals for future playoff rotations in each sport.
• The NYSPHSAA isn't turning its back on adding minority voices to the policy-making process, but the Executive Committee voted in May to oppose a proposal for adding voting members from the Conference of Big 5 School Districts to NYSPHSAA policy committees. That was reaffirmed Wednesday morning as numerous meeting attendees broke into four groups and came back with much the same opinion: Participation and involvement by any constituency should grow from the section level.
At the same time, there was support for engaging representatives of minority-heavy districts for a broader perspective before proposals reach the Executive Committee.
• The latest push to separate private and charter schools from the rest of the membership in the postseason wasn't dead on arrival, but it did reach room temperature shortly after the ad hoc committee started digging into the issue and plowed head first into reality.
Instead, the NYSPHSAA is heading toward a more uniform approach for moving those schools up (or down) in classification, with a state-level oversight committee handling appeals for the sake of additional consistency. The membership was updated on progress this week, and is headed toward a vote (and likely adoption) in October.
A cheerleading discussion was the lengthiest of the week
The agenda in Schenectady wasn't especially heavy with items requiring a vote. Probably the most notable was a reversal of a new policy. In May, the Executive Committee voted to label competitive cheerleading as a winter sport. In doing so, they quashed the common practice of installing their choreographies in the fall.
Many top teams go out of state for competitions -- as an aside, the number of events branded as "nationals" has long been out of control -- and some big ones begin in December. That leaves scant time to perfect a crucial aspect, so the cheerleading committee appealed for a reversal.
After a long discussion, with sport coordinator Jen Simmons fielding questions from the floor, the Central Committee voted unanimously to reverse the May vote. Though it was a win for competitive cheerleading, it was noted during the discussion the NYSPHSAA has potentially opened the door for other sport committees to ask for their own exceptions to in-season-only rules.
• Simmons became the cheerleading coordinator on short notice in 2015 when Executive Director Robert Zayas dismissed the incumbent. With cheerleading being two sports in one and the frequent need to bring proposals to the Executive Committee, the former Section 1 executive director has one of the most thankless jobs in the NYSPHSAA.
That wasn't lost on her as she served up the best line of the week:
"Don't leave the room to go to the bathroom," she said, "or when you come back you'll find out you've been appointed."
What else did the Central Committee approve?
As I outlined previously,
ticket prices will be increasing for all its championships.
Some of the more significant other proposals that were approved:
• Boys wrestling will get a 14th weight class this season, and the limits have been adjusted to incorporate NFHS updates: 103, 110, 118, 126, 132, 138, 144, 150, 157, 165, 175, 190, 215, and 285 pounds.
• Indoor track, which literally crowded itself out of its championship facility last winter by adding a second division for relays, cut two alternates from each relay for the 2026 meet. To further alleviate the space issue, the meet will be conducted over two days. That's not a budget buster (an increasing concern for all sports) since Day 1 was previously used for warmups, and sections should be able to send numerous first-day competitors home without staying the extra night.
• The semifinals and finals of the 2026 boys lacrosse tournament will shift from a Wednesday/Saturday schedule to Thursday/Sunday to avoid a conflict with Regents exams.
• With Wheatley AD Michael Scaturro (boys tennis) a late addition to the list after another dismissal, the Central Committee approved six sports coordinators for five-year terms.
• Sections will have the option to adopt running clocks in the third period of boys hockey games with an eight-goal margin.
A few other nuggets culled from the meeting
• Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls is now known as Harding Mazzotti Arena. The venue hosts the annual girls volleyball championships.
• La Salle Institute's appeal of a year-long ban from Section 2 championships has been filed with the State Education Department.
• The NYSPHSAA's Championship Advisory Committee isn't going to re-submit a proposal for three nights of rest between regional competition events. Discussion ahead of the vote in May devolved into a quagmire of procedural questions.
• The boys and girls swimming committees made their case for introducing team championships to their meets, but one observation from the floor may have mortally wounded any hope of gaining approval in the near future.
Under the proposal, sections would determine their team representative, and that team would send a squad of eight plus one alternate to compete on the first day. With the size of two-day meet a concern, the premise is that most if not all members of the nine-member team would already be there as qualifiers in individual events.
However, coaches may have to fill out the roster with some competitors who did not qualify individually. It was noted that having to pick them from a roster of 20 or 25 members -- and leaving the rest home -- is a sure formula for guaranteeing that unhappy parents reach out to the coach, the AD, and the principal. By extension, figure on the superintendent, the school board, the state education department, and lawyers also getting looped in.
There's merit to conducting a team championship, but a cautious approach toward getting it right makes sense.
Coming attractions
(1) If you're looking for the next big issue on the Executive Committee's plate, look no further than the number of participants in the swimming and outdoor track championships. Field sizes in both are already under scrutiny.
Track and field's overcrowding issue in largely due to expanding to three classes. Swimming has just one class but its standards for automatic qualifying are too lax.
The indoor track committee took a step toward resolving its own problem by cutting back on relays alternates, but the discussion at the Central Committee meeting raised an interesting point. Section 7 Executive Director Matt Walentuk asked why that sport has only one classification for its state meet while outdoor track now has three.
The answer partly is rooted in the NYSPHSAA's goal of advancing 5-8% of athletes in individual sports to its championship meets, but that's getting a closer look as part of the big picture.
For the record, the 2023-24 NYSPHSAA participation survey showed 460 boys and 428 girls teams for indoor track. The outdoor numbers were 620 and 621, respectively. The bigger disparity came in the number of participants -- 12,603 (boys) and 11,582 (girls) indoors vs. 28,463 (boys) and 26,545 (girls) outdoors.
(2) I don't envision it happening immediately, but parents/guardians might eventually have to sign a form saying they have read the NYSPHSAA handbook as a requirement for allowing their children to compete. It's kind of like the old days of signed code of conduct forms ahead of state tournaments, and it will probably start on Long Island if/when it happens.
The reason: Legal counsel Renee James updated the membership on recent activity, and William Floyd track star Zariel Macchia being allowed to run in the state indoor championships topped the list. Macchia had previously been ruled ineligible for breaking the long-standing rule against competing alongside college athletes under a specific circumstance.
The short story is that the runner and her father said they were not aware of the rule, and Justice Christopher Modelewski in Suffolk County pulled up a local ruling from nearly half a century ago that gave him the cover to rule favorably for them.
With so many school district already processing sign-ups online ahead of each sports season, adding one more requirement to the registration form isn't a great big leap.
It potentially reels in judges who too frequently fall back on (incorrectly) saying a case falls into a gray area of the rules and that they prefer not doing harm to the athlete over enforcing a crystal-clear rule.
