Nashville, TN – The TSSAA Board of Control met on Tuesday, March 17th, 2020. The meeting is normally held in person, but was conducted via teleconference due to the numerous precautions being taken regarding the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) virus.
The Board discussed the current status of the state basketball tournaments and voted to continue with the current suspension of the state basketball tournaments and explore what options are possible to conduct the tournament at a date in the near future.
The Board voted to maintain the current policy that the regular season for spring sports’ competition is still left up to school administrators, local boards of education, etc. If a school decides to not have any regular season games, they could not be prohibited from entering the postseason, if tournaments are held.
Mike Reed was elected to continue to serve as President of the Board of Control and Greg McCullough was elected to serve again as Vice-President.
The financial reports for bowling state championship and Hall of Champions games, as well as the BlueCross Bowl team allotment were approved by the Board.
Gatlinburg-Pittman Junior High School and Pigeon Forge Junior High School were approved for TSSAA membership. The Sevier County Board of Education has decided to change the grade configuration of Gatlinburg-Pittman Middle School and Pigeon Forge Middle School from 6-8 grade schools to 7-9 grade schools next year. Both schools requested to join TSSAA in order for the 9th grade students to be able to co-op with the high schools.
St. Andrew’s – Sewanee School requested for a cooperative agreement with Grundy County High School in football for the 2020-21 school year that was approved.
The Board was given an update regarding important upcoming dates in regards to the classification process. The Board will decide on the classification plan (number of classes in each sport) for the next four-year cycle at their June meeting, which will be from the 2021-22 through 2024-25 school years.
The enrollment figures that will be used for this classification cycle will be obtained in September, 2020. The deadline for schools to decide if they want to move up in classification will be on October 26th. The Board will approve the districts and regions for the four-year cycle at their November meeting.
A proposal submitted by Gallatin High School to allow golf coaches to coach from green-to-tee during regular season and postseason competitions was approved.
