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ATHLETIC DIRECTORS DON'T WANT LEGISLATURE TO TAKE ACTION
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We surveyed 223 NCHSAA athletic directors, accounting for about 53% of the membership, and asked them three questions about the legislative investigation into the NCHSAA.
- Do you support the legislative inquiry into the NCHSAA?
- Do you believe the state legislature should pass legislation to change the way high school sports are governed in NC?
- Do you have any thoughts about the ongoing legislative investigation into the NCHSAA or proposed legislation regarding high school sports?
The first two questions were multiple choice -- "yes," "no," or "I don't know" -- while the third question was open-ended. All responses were anonymous from athletic directors, so we did not collect their identities, allowing them to be fully open and honest.
A plurality -- barely -- of athletic directors support the investigation. 38.1% said they support the investigation, 33.6% said they do not support the investigation. However, 45.3% say they do NOT support legislation to change high school sports, just 24.2% do support legislation.
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NFHS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR EXPECTS CHANGES TO SOFTBALL RULES RESTRICTING HAIRSTYLES
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A softball player at Hillside High School was forced by an official to cut beads out of her hair or she would not be able to participate in a game earlier this season. The story gained national attention, and the rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations came under fire.
On Thursday morning, the NFHS held a nationwide press conference to discuss multiple things -- including the hairstyle rules for softball. Executive Director Dr. Karissa Niehoff said hairstyles have been added to the agenda for the Softball Rules Committee meeting next month and she believes the rules will be changed to be more inclusive.
Niehoff said the rules were in place to prevent injury, however she said she has not been able to find any sports medicine evidence that shows wearing beads in hair poses a health or safety risk for softball players.
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SHOT CLOCK ADOPTION WON'T BE WIDESPREAD, NFHS SAYS
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Last week, the NFHS announced that it would allow state associations to adopt a 35-second shot clock in high school basketball beginning in the 2022-2023 season. Dr. Karissa Niehoff addressed this decision during Thursday's press conference, and offered her insight.
Niehoff said she does not believe there will be widespread adoption of a shot clock in 2022-2023. She guessed that maybe 4-6 state associations would add a shot clock, noting several potential challenges and issues that states could face with implementation. She also said she does not see a national mandate for a shot clock coming down the road.
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SPORTS PARTICIPATION CONTINUES TO DECLINE IN NC
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Later today, we will release our findings of a second high school sports participation survey we conducted at HighSchoolOT. The survey was sent to all athletic directors at NCHSAA member schools, and we had a response rate of about 53%. It was a follow-up survey to our February survey about sports participation.
When you see the survey results later today, you will learn that the number of schools seeing a decline in sports participation has actually increased since February, despite schools reopening to in-person learning, restrictions loosening, and COVID-19 cases coming way down. In my opinion, that's a red flag going into next school year.
The data will break down information by classification and school type, as well as by sport. Girls basketball is still impacted more than any other sport, something we identified in our first participation survey.
Download the free HighSchoolOT app on your phone and you will get an alert when the survey results are released. If you're in the WRAL-TV viewing area, I'll be on the 7 PM news on WRAL to discuss the survey results as well (and potentially earlier newscasts, but that's not set in stone yet).
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CENTRAL ACADEMY SUSPENDS VARSITY FOOTBALL FOR 2 YEARS
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Speaking of sports participation concerns, Central Academy of Technology & Arts, which is a member of Union County Public Schools, announced this week that it will suspend varsity football for at least two seasons due to a lack of participation from juniors and seniors. During that time, the junior varsity program will continue and Central Academy hopes to build back to having a varsity program in the future.
Survey results we have collected this year suggest football has been heavily impacted by participation declines during COVID-19, which may have accelerated a trend that has been going on for years. Hopefully Central Academy will be the last school in the NCHSAA that has to make this announcement, but chances are it won't be.
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HSOT RELEASES MULTIPLE ALL-STATE TEAMS; DEADLINE TO SUBMIT HSOT HONORS NOMINATIONS APPROACHING
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We're releasing all-state teams in most every sport this year, and this week we released the HSOT All-State boys & girls golf teams. We have numerous other all-state teams coming your way in the next several days, including football, so stay tuned!
On a related note, the deadline to nominate student-athletes for HighSchoolOT Honors is quickly approaching! Your last day to make nominations for HighSchoolOT Honors is May 31! Click here to nominate in 36 different categories.
Finalists in all categories will be announced on June 7, the same day public voting begins. Voting will end on June 28, and we will announce the winners during a virtual event in July.
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| The Raiders rallied from a 7-0 deficit to beat the Eagles 27-11 in baseball. |
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| Camden County won the school's first ever state championship in any sport last weekend as the softball team claimed the 1A title. |
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| Cary High School announced on Wednesday that it has hired Coleman Tyrance as its next head football coach. |
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This is always my favorite part of this newsletter because I get to look at my calendar and stress myself out about the week ahead as I enter the weekend haha...
I hesitate to say this because I will -- without a doubt -- jinx things. But right now, next week looks pretty normal. As of now, there are no legislative hearings scheduled, no big press conferences that we know of, no imminent announcements of any kind. So you should probably buckle up because something will probably happen now that I have put that in writing.
We will continue to monitor the legislative investigation into the NCHSAA and see if there is any movement on that topic next week. I am working on reporting about the investigation, but it takes time.
This weekend I will begin putting together the baseball playoff projections. I'm not sure we will release them this weekend, we may hold them for a week or so depending on how messy they are, but we are getting the point of the regular season where we can start thinking about playoff projections. So stay tuned for that.
I also want to give a quick shoutout to HSOT reporter Joel Bryant. His last day with us will be on Monday as he leaves town for a new position. Joel has been an important part of our HSOT team, leading our ENC coverage, keeping tabs on recruiting and former athletes playing professionally, and much more. I'm appreciative of all of Joel's contributions and wish him well as he moves on to the next step in his career.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
-Nick Stevens
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Thank you for reading the HighSchoolOT Newsletter this week. Do you have suggestions, comments, or concerns? You can email me any time at nstevens@wral.com.
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