The IHSAA girls basketball and boys basketball tournaments will return to a four-week format for the 2001-2002 season and remain in a four-class format as a result of action taken today at the annual IHSAA Board of Directors meeting and the monthly session of the IHSAA Executive Committee.

By a vote of 10-8, the Board of Directors tabled a proposal submitted by Gary Vandergriff, principal of Tri-County High School, that would have reduced the maximum number of classes from four to three in basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball. By being tabled, the proposal will return to the agenda for the April 29, 2002 Board of Directors meeting. A companion proposal to place the 37 IHSAA member schools that are private or parochial into a separate class was defeated 18-0.

By a vote of 9-3 the Executive Committee changed the basketball tournaments by eliminating the mid-week regional and returning to a four-week format while retaining four levels of play. The tournament path will be:

Week 1 – Sectionals (16 per class) on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.

Week 2 – Regionals (4 per class) with four teams at each site on Saturday morning and Saturday night.

Week 3 – Semi-States (2 per class) with two teams at each site on Saturday.

Week 4 – State finals at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis with two teams from each class.

To accommodate the change, the regular seasons for both genders will be reduced by one week at the end of each season. The starting date of regular-season competition remains the same for both genders. In 2002, those dates are Nov. 5 for girls and Nov. 19 for boys.

The state finals date for each gender remains the same, with the girls state finals on the first Saturday of March (March 2, 2002) and the boys state finals on the fourth Saturday of March (March 23, 2002).

The format calls for a one-week overlap of the girls and boys tournaments. The Saturday (March 2) of boys sectional week is the same day as the girls basketball state finals. At most, eight schools could have teams playing in the girls basketball state finals and the boys basketball sectional finals on that date. Affected schools will play the boys basketball sectional championship game on the following Monday night.

"This is not a perfect solution," said IHSAA Commissioner Blake Ress. "We would prefer to have no overlap. But given the parameters, this is the best solution at this time in order to eliminate the mid-week regional."

In other action by the Executive Committee, the IHSAA Volleyball State Finals will be played at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis beginning with the 2001 tournament series. The 2001 state finals date will be Nov. 3. The sites for the semifinals matches that morning in each of the four classes will be determined at a later date.

In other action, the Board of Directors:

• Approved, effective June 2002, a proposal that eliminates summer period participation restrictions for students and coaches. This will allow for an unlimited number of students from the same high school to participate on AAU and club teams. High school coaches will be permitted to coach students from their school.
• Reduced, effective immediately, the waiting period from four years to two years for new IHSAA member schools to enter IHSAA tournaments.
• Approved, effective in the 2003-2004 school year, a four-year classification cycle for the multiple-class tournaments. It will replace the two-year classification cycle that has been in place since the advent of the IHSAA football tournament series in 1973.
• Approved, effective 2003-2004, the ability of schools to play up one or more classification levels. Schools will be allowed to play in a higher classification in one or more sports while remaining in their natural classification in others. Schools who opt to play in a higher class must declare at the beginning of an enrollment classification cycle and stay in those classes through the entire four-year cycle.
• Approved, effective 2003-2004, that enrollment classification will be based on student count for grades 9-12. The current process counts students in grades 9-11.
• Changed the number of IHSAA legislative districts from five to three. There will be four open seats in each district, with each competition class (A, 2A, 3A, 4A) represented. In addition, there will be two seats each for female, minority and urban school representation. The change will become effective with the next election period in December 2001.
• Rejected a proposal that would have created a multiple-class tournament format in team wrestling.
• Approved a code of conduct regarding the solicitation of prospective students to IHSAA member schools.
• Elected Michael Powell, principal of Mississinewa High School, as president of the Board of Directors for the 2001-2002 school year, and Lee Lonzo, assistant principal of Carmel High School, as vice president.
• Elected Oren Sutherlin, principal of North Vermillion High School, as chairman of the Executive Committee for the 2001-2002 school year, and Joseph Trimboli, principal of Mishawaka High School, as vice chairman.