Posted April 28, 2006

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has approved several changes in its rules, including an update to the makeup of its executive board.

Meeting in Auburn April 24, the WIAA Representative Assembly adopted six out of 12 proposed amendments to the official association handbook. The approved amendments, supported by the WSSDA Interscholastic Activities Committee, are as follows:

Amendment #1 Middle Level Cross Country – Adds a cross-country jamboree to the middle level schools schedule. The jamboree would be limited to one-mile in length and is intended to provide a competitive "game-like" event as a prelude to the season.

Amendment #2 Middle Level Wrestling – Reduces the required number of practice days from 12 to 10 for middle level wrestling.

Amendment #3 Middle Level Wrestling – Allows student athletes to wrestle a maximum of 22 contests in a season (the current limit is 14). The number of dates that a team may schedule remains at ten.

Amendment #4 WIAA Executive Board – Increases the WIAA executive board from ten members to 13, with nine elected members and four appointed members. The language specifies that the four at-large members be selected in order to provide female, ethnic, position and geographic representation on the executive board.

Amendment #5 Out-of-Season – Limits the time that high school coaches can coach their athletes during the summer. Out-of-season for all high school sports shall be Aug. 1 until the first day of fall sports turnouts and from the final day of the state tournament for that sport until the conclusion of the final spring sport state tournament. (The original proposal, endorsed by the WSSDA IAC, called for a July 15 cutoff; the assembly changed it to Aug. 1.)

Amendment #7 Out-of-Season – Allows high school athletes who are selected for participation in Washington State Coaches Association feeder and all-star games to wear their school uniforms.

Amendments #6 and #8–#12 were not adopted.

The complete text of all proposals is available on the WIAA Web site . For additional information, contact your director area representative on the WSSDA IAC.

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