(State) On March 16, the IGHSAU, IHSAA, IHSMA, and IHSSA announced that all spring activities are prohibited through the state’s K-12 school recommended closure of four weeks.
Effective immediately from now through April 12, all IHSAA and IGHSAU sports are now in a prohibited period for practice, competition, and sanctioned activity until the closure is lifted. Additional guidance on eligibility was provided and updated on Monday, March 23.
IHSMA has cancelled Class 4A and 1A solo/small ensemble festival set for April 18, and the state large group festival series set for May 8-9.
All IHSSA (speech) events will be prohibited to practice or make up their individual state local contest until the closure is lifted. All contact between coaches, judges, and students for the duration of the period is prohibited. The all-state festival scheduled for March 30 has been cancelled.
As this situation is rapidly changing, all four organizations continue to monitor the situation and make adjustments as necessary. Notifications will go out immediately to member schools should updates be made.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. If a school does not cancel classes, can students practice?
A. No. All practice, competition and sanctioned activities are cancelled for all schools.
Q. What specifically is prohibited for coaches and their athletes?
A. In-person contact between coaches/administrators and student-athletes for the duration of the period is prohibited. This means no practices, no competitions, no scrimmages, no strength and conditioning activities, no training sessions or participation with other school programs.
Q. Does this impact the length of the spring seasons?
A. No decisions on spring sports seasons after the four-week closure period have been made. Guidance on future IGHSAU and IHSAA activity schedule adjustments and their effects on season lengths, as well as postseason events, will be announced through www.iahsaa.org and www.ighsau.org.
Q. What happens to softball and baseball in the summer?
A. The first practice date for boys’ baseball and girls’ softball, May 4, remains the same until further information is provided.
Q. May a coach email their athletes a workout or practice plan?
A. If the permissible practice date is in effect, it is permissible for a coach to email individual plans to athletes. Please note, these plans should not encourage group activities, however small, with other team members. Coaches should take great care to communicate appropriately and effectively the expectation that workouts should be done by individuals on their own time and are voluntary in nature.
Q. How does this apply to unsanctioned athletic programs, such as clubs within the schools?
A. Local district policies would govern those activities and organizations.
Q. May a music instructor continue to practice for the make-up of a previously missed contest with students during the closure?
A. There should be no in-person contact between teachers/administrators and participants for the duration of the prohibited period. Any effort to provide IHSMA participants with a make-up experience should take place only via digital media through the duration of the prohibited period.
Q. IHSSA is allowing its speech participants to make up the state contest locally. Can teachers/coaches schedule practices and/or make up contests with judges during this time?
A. All IHSSA events will be prohibited to practice or make up their individual state local contest until the closure is lifted. All contact between coaches, judges, and students for the duration of the period is prohibited. The all-state festival scheduled for March 30 has been cancelled.
Q. I am a spring sport official and planned to attend a clinic that was postponed. What should I do?
A. All officiating clinics within the four-week timeframe have been postponed. As things progress, we will make an attempt to re-schedule some of those clinics if at all possible. If you are an official who must attend a clinic this year in order to be certified for post- season assignments, that requirement will be waived for this year.
Q. How will this delay affect the 30-day period of ineligibility for the scholarship rule and/or the 90-day period for transfers and open enrollments? Will the time off count toward the limits or will students have to serve the period once schools are back in session?
A. The IGHSAU and IHSAA are seeking guidance from the Department of Education specific to those provisions of the Iowa Code. Only the Department of Education has the ability to issue interpretations of Iowa Code. Once a determination has been made, we will notify school leaders. School administrators should continue to keep accurate records of how many days have been served toward each period for students in these situations.
Q. Are the association offices still open?
A. All offices are closed, but all administrators are working remotely and remain available.
Q. Who can I contact for more information if I have a question?
A. For girls’ sports, IGHSAU administrators will remain available during this time: www.ighsau.org/about/staff
For boys’ sports, IHSAA administrators will remain available during this time: www.iahsaa.org/about/staff
Future updates and guidance on IHSMA events will be available through www.ihsma.org.
Guidance on future IHSSA activity will be announced through www.ihssa.org
ELIGIBILITY & CONTACT FAQs
Updated: Monday, March 23
Academic Scholarship Rule
Q. When do we start counting the 30-day ineligibility period for a student who failed a course the first semester of the 2019-2020 school year or the second semester of the 2018-2019 school year and a spring sport is the first sport in which they compete?
A. According to guidance from the Governor’s office, the legislature passed legislation stating that school districts did not need to make up the days missed due to the recommendation to close schools for 4 weeks. Therefore, we will continue to use the current starting and ending dates for the scholarship rule for the spring of 2020.
IHSAA Sports 1st competition date Eligibility resumes at 12:01 a.m. on THIS Date:
Track/Field March 16 April 15
Spring Golf March 30 April 29
Tennis March 30 April 29
Soccer April 2 May 2
IGHSAU Sports 1st competition date Eligibility resumes at 12:01 a.m. on THIS Date:
Track/Field March 16 April 15
Golf March 25 April 24
Tennis March 25 April 24
Soccer April 6 May 6
Q. When do we start counting the 30-day ineligibility period for a student who failed a course the first semester of the 2019-2020 school year or the second semester of the 2018-2019 school year and a summer sport is the first sport in which they compete?
A. At this time, we will continue to use the current starting date and ending dates for the scholarship rule for the summer of 2020.
Q. What about a student who failed a course the first semester of the 2019-2020 school year or the second semester of the 2018-2019 school year if the spring and summer sports seasons are cancelled?
A. We are awaiting guidance from the Department of Education regarding this possible scenario.
Transfer/Open Enrollment Rule
Q. We have several students who transferred/open enrolled to our school at the beginning of the second semester and were ineligible for 90 school days at the varsity level. How do we determine when they will be eligible for varsity sports?
A. According to guidance from the Governor’s office, the legislature passed legislation stating that school districts did not need to make up the days missed due to the recommendation to close schools for 4 weeks. Therefore, if you missed 20 days of school due to COVID-19 school closure, you can include those days as part of the student-athlete’s 90 school day ineligibility period. School days missed due to snow dates, spring break, etc. are not eligible to be counted in the 90 school day ineligibility period.
Q. Our school district cancelled school beginning March 16th through April 12th. Our third quarter began on Monday, March 16th and a student-athlete was planning on transferring/open enrolling and beginning school with us on Monday, March 16th. Can they begin counting their 90 school day ineligibility beginning March 16th, even though they have not been in our school yet?
A. No they cannot begin counting their 90 school days since they have not been a student in your school at this particular time. Once you begin school again, they may begin counting their 90 school days of ineligibility at the varsity level.
Local School District Code of Conduct Issues
Q. We have a student who violated our local school district’s Code of Conduct policy and is scheduled to miss 1/3 of our track and field season. How should I go about determining what a third of the season is?
A. All Code of Conduct eligibility is determined by local school districts.
Additional FAQ
Q. Should our coaches be encouraging kids to work out together?
A. Encouraging students to work out together defeats the goal of social distancing. Coaches should not encourage this. Guidance provided by Drake University’s Department of Athletic Training dictates the following: If athletes are doing workouts on their own (i.e. lifting, throwing, etc.), limit the number of workout partners to only 1 or 2 individuals. Do not have multiple/different workout partners; stay consistent with the same 1 or 2 individuals. Your workout partner should be quarantined and only socializing with their immediate family (no additional outside groups or people). Otherwise, this defeats the purpose. This allows you to have a workout partner, but limits your exposure.
Q. May our coach conduct training sessions via video conferencing software (Zoom, Google Hangout, FaceTime, etc.)?
A. Since we are using our coach-athlete contact rule as a model for what we’re prohibiting now, this would be prohibited. This means no demonstration or specific instruction; no coach-directed instruction is permitted.
Q. If schools go to online schooling for a period of time or the rest of the year, what impact does this have upon academic eligibility dates and transfer eligibility dates?
A. Unless the Department of Education allows schools to count days of online instruction as official school days, these dates would not count toward eligibility.
Q. If schools are asked to extend the day (add hours to the day), what impact does this have upon academic eligibility dates and transfer eligibility dates)? Previous guidance from the DOE, said 90 days is 90 days, but does the current situation justify new guidance from the DOE?
A. Adding hours to school days does not impact the ineligibility period. Regardless of how many hours or minutes are in a school day, it remains counted as one school day.
