FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 31, 2003
Board approves rally scoring for volleyball, OKs inaugural bowling, girls weightlifting championships
GAINESVILLE – The Florida High School Activities Association Board of Directors today gave the go-ahead for rally scoring in volleyball, as well as approving inaugural championships in bowling and girls weightlifting. Both items take effect next school year.
An agenda item for the past five National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Volleyball Rules Committee meetings, rally scoring was finally adopted in January 2003 for implementation not later than the 2004 season. The FHSAA Volleyball Advisory Committee discussed the potential implementation of rally scoring at length at its Dec. 3, 2002 meeting, voting 5-2 in favor of the rule once the NFHS made it available for state association adoption.
"The rally scoring format has been popular at the collegiate level and with the state associations that experimented with it," said Commissioner Robert W. Hughes. "It's more spectator friendly and brings an added level of excitement to each match."
During the 2002 season, 15 state associations experimented with rally scoring. In statistics compiled by the NFHS, the average length of a game with ralling scoring was 18 minutes, compared to 21 minutes for games with side-out scoring. The National Collegiate Athletic Association adopted the rally scoring format in 2001.
The Board of Directors also adopted terms and conditions for invitational state championship series in girls & boys bowling and girls weightlifting. The FHSAA State Bowling Series will take place in the fall, with the FHSAA Bowling Finals state tournament the week of Nov. 17-22, 2003. The FHSAA State Girls Weightlifting Series will be part of the winter sports season, with the FHSAA Girls Weightlifting Finals state meet slated for Feb. 7, 2004.
In other action, the Board of Directors:
• Adopted a classification policy for individual sports similar to the existing one, with the addition of capping the number of possible classifications for a given sport at four.
• Approved a recommendation for the FHSAA State Football Series to schedule a bye week between state semifinal games and FHSAA Finals state championship games in Classes 2A & 2B, so that the championship games in those two classifications can be played at the same time and site as all other classifications.
• Approved a recommendation to adjust the rotation, between the upper and lower lines of the bracket, of the host school in the FHSAA State Football Series to balance the number of games in each portion of the state. Effective with the 2003 FHSAA State Football Series, in Classes 1A, 3A & 5A, the upper line will serve as host school, while in Classes 2A, 2B, 4A & 6A, the lower line will serve as host school. Determination of host school will rotate in all classes accordingly in subsequent years.
• Approved a recommendation to revise the FHSAA State Football Series terms and conditions to state that, in two-team districts, only the district champion will automatically advance to the regional tournament. The automatic berth normally reserved for the district runner-up will become an at-large berth open to all teams in the regional complex not receiving an automatic berth.
• Approved a recommendation for the FHSAA State Football Series to expand the size of contest official crews for state semifinal games and FHSAA Football Finals state championship games from six to seven officials.
• Approved a recommendation to amend the "State Series Commitment Form Policy" to prohibit member schools from declaring independence and forming their own league without the permission of the Board of Directors, stipulating that any tournament or playoff to determine a conference or league champion in a sport must be conducted as part of the FHSAA-approved regular season for that sport.
• Approved a recommendation to expand the composition of the Officials Advisory Committee, increasing representation for each sport to four delegates – one from each of the FHSAA's four administrative sections – thus increasing the size of the committee from 12 to 28 members.
• Approved proposed revisions to the Association's Articles of Incorporation, including the change in the name of the Association to "Florida High School Athletic Association," for submission to the membership for adoption.
• Got a first-look at the Association's new logo, logotype and officials insignia that will be introduced on July 1, 2003 in conjunction with the Association's name change.
The Florida High School Activities Association is the governing body for interscholastic athletic competition in Florida. It has a membership of 700 middle, junior and senior high schools.
The FHSAA Board of Directors is the executive authority of the Association, establishing guidelines, regulations, policies and procedures within the framework of the Association’s bylaws. The Board of Directors also has the sole authority over all terms and conditions of participation and competition in the FHSAA state championship series. The Board of Directors meets five times annually. Its next meeting is June 12-13, 2003 at the Wyndham Westshore Hotel in Tampa.
Contact:
Jack Watford
Director of Communications, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 170
jwatford@fhsaa.org
