Illinois High School Association
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is an association that regulates competition of interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level for the state of Illinois. It is a charter member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).[2] The IHSA regulates 14 sports for boys, 15 sports for girls, and eight co-educational non-athletic activities. More than 760 public and private high schools in the state of Illinois are members of the IHSA. The Association's offices are in Bloomington, Illinois.
Abbreviation
IHSA
December 27, 1900
Association
Athletic/Educational
2715 McGraw Dr.
Bloomington, IL 61704
40°28′02″N 88°57′03″W / 40.467311°N 88.950838°W
777 high schools[1]
Craig Anderson
26
In its over 100 years of existence, the IHSA has been at the center of many controversies. Some of these controversies (inclusion of sports for girls, the inclusion of private schools, drug testing, and the use of the term "March Madness") have had national resonance, or paralleled the struggles seen in other states across the country. Other controversies (geographic advancement of teams to the state playoff series, struggles between small schools and large schools, particular rules unique to Illinois competition) are more of a local focus.
Governance[edit]
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is governed according to the rules of its constitution.[3] This constitution covers the broadest policies of the Association, such as membership, governance, officers and their duties, and meeting requirements.
The IHSA is led by an eleven-member Board of Directors.[4] All eleven members are high school principals from member schools. Seven of the ten are elected to three-year terms from seven geographic regions within the state of Illinois. Three other board members are elected at-large. A treasurer, who does not vote, is appointed by the Board. The Board of Directors determines IHSA policies and employs an executive director and staff. They also work with the Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Principals Association, the Illinois Association of School Boards, the Illinois Association of School Administrators, the Illinois Athletic Directors Association and the North Central Association.
The IHSA also has a 35-member Legislative Commission,[5] consisting of 21 high school principals, seven high school athletic directors elected from each of the seven state regions, and seven at-large members. The commission reviews amendment proposals to the IHSA Constitution and By-laws, and determines which are passed on to a vote of the member schools. Each school receives one vote on any amendments, with voting taking place annually in December. Changes are passed by simple majority of member schools.
The day-to-day running of the Association is charged to an administrative staff of nine,[6] one of whom acts in the position of Executive Director. This group is directly responsible for setting up and running the individual state playoff series in each sport and activity. They also supervise annual meetings with advisory committees from each sport and activity to review possible changes in the rules. They also coordinate committees on issues from sportsmanship and sports medicine to media relations and corporate sponsorship.
Subordinate to the Constitution and By-Laws are a number of policies.[7] These policies are generally of greater interest to the public, as they more specifically deal with issues that affect the day-to-day operation of sports and activities. Examples of policies include individual athlete eligibility, rules governing the addition of new sports and activities, the classification of schools (1A, 2A, 3A, etc.), and media relations.
The key policy that has been a cornerstone to the IHSA is its policy on grouping and seeding tournaments:
1. The State Series is designed to determine a State Champion. The State Series is not intended to necessarily advance the best teams in the state to the State Final.
The IHSA is built upon the concept of geographic representation in its state playoff series.
History[edit]
Early years[edit]
The IHSA was founded on December 27, 1900, at a rump session of the Illinois Principals Association. Known as the Illinois High School Athletic Association for the first 40 years of its existence, the IHSA is the second oldest of the 52 state high school associations. Only the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association outdates it, by two years.
For the greater part of a decade, the IHSA was concerned mostly with establishing school control over interscholastic athletic programs and setting eligibility standards for competition. Ringers were a persistent problem, and among schoolboy sports, football was a special concern. In this period, severe injuries and even deaths were not uncommon, and there was much talk of banning football completely.
In 1908, the IHSA's mission expanded in an unforeseen direction when its board was convinced by Lewis Omer of Oak Park and River Forest High School to sponsor a statewide basketball tournament. Although a handful of other state associations had sponsored track meets, none had ever attempted to organize a statewide basketball tournament. The first tournament, an 11-team invitational held at the Oak Park YMCA, was a financial success. Subsequent state tournaments, which were open to all member schools, provided the IHSA with fiscal independence, an important new vehicle to spread its message, and ever-increasing name recognition among the public.
By 1922, the affairs of the Association became so time-consuming that its board hired a full-time manager, C. W. Whitten. As vice president of the Board, Whitten had recently reorganized the basketball tournament and reduced the size of the state finals from 21 teams to four. About the same time, the IHSA became a charter member of the National Federation of State High School Associations. In addition to his IHSA responsibilities, Whitten ran the business affairs of the NFHS, at first unofficially, and after 1927 with the official title of general manager.
From this dual stage, Whitten and his assistant manager at the IHSA, H. V. Porter, exerted unusual influence over high school sports, not only in Illinois, but across the nation. In one memorable battle, Whitten took on the "grand old man" of college football, Amos Alonzo Stagg of the University of Chicago and effectively shut down his national tournament for high school basketball champions.[8] Porter served on several NFHS committees and helped develop the molded basketball and the fan-shaped backboard, among other inventions. Porter later became the first full-time executive of the NFHS.
As the Association matured, member schools requested sponsorship of state tournaments in sports other than basketball. The first such move came in 1927, when the IHSA took over control of the Illinois Interscholastic, a festival of high school track, golf, and tennis run by the University of Illinois. The meet continued to be held on the campus in Champaign–Urbana, but as with basketball, IHSA involvement opened the field to all IHSA member schools and removed non-member schools, including a handful of out-of-state schools. The IHSA subsequently established state series in several other boys' sports: swimming and diving (1932), wrestling (1937), baseball (1940), cross country (1946), and gymnastics (1958) (gymnastics had a University of Illinois sponsored state meet from 1952 through 1957). Few of these series were self-supporting, but the ever-popular basketball tournament – sometimes referred to as the "goose that laid the golden egg" – paid the freight for all.
Of the many challenges faced by Whitten during his 20-year career, the one with the longest-lasting repercussions was the reorganization of 1940. Prior to this time, two large groups of Illinois high schools remained outside of IHSA control: private schools, which were not eligible for membership, and the public schools of Chicago, which were eligible but had joined only sporadically. The new constitution approved in 1940 extended the privileges of membership to non-public schools and gave limited autonomy to the Chicago schools, which subsequently joined en masse. In addition, non-athletic activities such as speech and music were added to the IHSA's menu, prompting the elimination of the word "Athletic" from the Association's name.[9][10]
1941 saw one of the first serious challenges to IHSA authority, when the association banned high school bands from competing nationally. When a bill was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly to transfer the IHSA's authority to the state superintendent's office, the IHSA moved to change the ban, and give local athletic directors a greater voice in decision making.[11] Also that year, the IHSA allowed private schools to participate for the first time.[12]
In 1942, as World War II started to have an effect on American life, many schools began dropping less popular sports as transportation and hiring qualified coaches became a serious issue. The association polled its membership to investigate the possibility of ending the spring sports season. The poll supported keeping the season.[13][14] All over the country, as gas rationing threatened to prevent teams and officials from traveling, IHSA Secretary Al Willis was able to get special exemptions for Illinois teams and officials; a precedent that spread to other states, very likely saving high school competitions during the war.[15] By 1943, the IHSA had to look at making changes to its rules regarding eligible coaches, and the prospect of military veterans returning to high school.[16] Ironically, the federal government eventually did put a limit to post season travel for high schools in May, 1945; too late to stop Illinois' spring tournaments, and just in time to herald the end of the war.[17] In the end, the IHSA did not curtail its sports tournaments throughout the war.
Twenty-three Illinoisans are members of the National High School Hall of Fame sponsored by the NFHS. The honorees include:
Notes[edit]
1The total of 52 counts the high school association of the District of Columbia and the two associations in Iowa, of which the latter has separate governing bodies for boys' and girls' school activities.
2The IHSA sponsors three classes of competitive cheerleading. In addition, there is a fourth class for coed cheerleading teams.
3While boys' golf did not have a team champion until 1938, the IHSA sponsored an individual tournament in 1916, and from 1919 onward.
4Boys' tennis did not have a team champion until 1936, but the IHSA sponsored individual tournaments from 1912 to 1915, and then from 1919 onward.
5The seventeen state titles in Girls Track and Field were won by Lincoln High School in East St. Louis. This school closed after the 1997–98 school year. East St. Louis Senior High School is the caretaker of these records, though the school has not won any state titles in this sport since the merger.[88]
6Football is the only sport to which a team must qualify for entry. 256 teams are accepted based on record, and then opponent wins. These teams are broken into eight groups by size, after which, each team is assigned to one of two 16-team brackets based on geography. Seeding within the bracket is based on record, and then opponent wins.
7Wrestling teams are assigned to a regional by geography. Individual wrestlers are seeded in each weight class. The team regional champion is based on team scores, which are standard for wrestling tournaments, based on individual advancement. The individuals then compete in individual sectionals and an individual state championship. Afterwards, the teams that won their regionals compete in a dual team sectional tournament, with sectional winners advancing to state.
8Music competition is held in a sweepstakes format. Competing schools perform at sites throughout the state. Scores are then submitted from each site to the IHSA, who then rank teams according to the judges scores, with the highest score in each Class being the State Champion. Any school earning a "First Division" distinction in judging, irrelevant of their final placement, may purchase an award. While barred from solo performance, music ensembles are the only IHSA competitions in which junior high or middle school participation is permitted.
9The IHSA stopped recognizing team champions in debate after the 1971–72 school year. Individual competition continues to the present.
10Although Football and Wrestling are boys' sports, girls can play in both of these sports.
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