IHSA

IHSA Services

Last updated: April 15, 2008

The IHSA is a not-for-profit service organization. The current scope of the IHSA encompasses the following:

Boys Athletics

It offers 14 statewide championship series. The series (and the year the first state champion was crowned) are: Baseball (1940), Basketball (1908), Bowling (2003), Cross Country (1946), Football (1974), Golf (1916), Gymnastics (1952), Soccer (1972), Swimming & Diving (1932), Tennis (1912), Track & Field (1893), Volleyball (1992), Water Polo (2002), Individual Wrestling (1937) and Dual Meet Wrestling (1984).

The series are conducted during the school year as follows: Fall — Golf, Soccer, Cross Country, and Football; Winter — Swimming & Diving, Wrestling, and Basketball, and Bowling; Spring — Tennis, Track and Field, Gymnastics, Volleyball, Water Polo, and Baseball.

Girls may compete on boys teams under certain circumstances. Wrestling and football are the boys sports with the most female participants.

Girls Athletics

It offers 14 statewide championship series. The series (and the year in first state championship was crowned) are: Badminton (1977), Basketball (1977), Bowling (1973), Competitive Cheerleading (2006), Cross Country (1979), Gymnastics (1977), Soccer (1988), Softball (1976), Swimming & Diving (1975), Tennis (1972), Track & Field (1973), Volleyball (1975) and Water Polo (2002).

The series are conducted during the school year as follows: Fall — Golf, Tennis, Cross Country, Swimming & Diving, and Volleyball; Winter — Bowling, Competitive Cheerleading, Gymnastics, and Basketball; Spring — Track & Field, Badminton, Soccer, Water Polo, and Softball.

Boys may not compete on girls teams, but Competitive Cheerleading has a coed division in which males may participate.

Non-Athletic Activities

It offers state championships in Music (in separate Solo & Ensemble and Organization Contests), Debate, Drama & Group Interpretation, Speech Individual Events, team Chess, Scholastic Bowl, and Journalism.

Athletic Officials

Through its Officials Department, the IHSA provides the member schools with a listing of more than 10,000 active athletic officials for the sports of: Baseball, Basketball, Competitive Cheerleading, Football, Boys Gymnastics, Girls Gymnastics, Soccer, Softball, Swimming & Diving, Track & Field, Volleyball and Wrestling. Each major official who receives reimbursement for officiating a contest between member schools must be registered with the IHSA. Athletic officials are required to attend rules meetings each year to learn the rules, officiating techniques and skills necessary to provide for the proper conduct of interscholastic competition between school squads. Many also attend clinics during the year. In addition, the IHSA enrolls member officials in NFIOA.

www.ihsa.org

The official Web Site contains "everything you'd ever want to know about the IHSA" and then some. It contains pages for every IHSA athletic and non-athletic activity, Real Time Tickers for almost all state final tournaments, the Officials Department, Nevco Scoreboard ScoreZone, and many other pages. The IHSA Constitution, By-laws and Board Policies are also on the Web site

In the winter of 1999 the IHSA inaugurated an online service that allows regional/sectional managers to log into a special section of the IHSA.org site and input their results directly after the end of the tournament or meet. This allows people are the state to view the most up-to-date results without waiting for tomorrow's newspaper. This service is also used by teams who will be participating in state finals to input team rosters, results and more. The information is then imported directly into the IHSA's state final programs.

In the fall of 2000 the IHSA launched its Officials Center. This services allows any IHSA licensed official to log in and updated personal information, take rules tests, view ratings, submit special reports, update tournament availability, accept tournament assignments and much more. In addition, the Schools Center allows school officials to log in and change information about their school, enter tournament series and perform other administrative tasks.

All services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week from any place in the world!

Student/School Welfare

IHSA provides catastrophe injury insurance protection for students involved in each state tournament series.

Reimbursement Plan

Each member school which qualifies to participate in the sectional level of competition and beyond in the team sports is reimbursed for mileage to and from the events, and those teams which qualify for the state finals also are reimbursed an additional fixed sum. Every team advancing to the state final in Baseball, Basketball, Football, Soccer, Softball, Volleyball and Wrestling receives a reimbursement check.

If revenue exceeds funds needed to meet the requirements of the annual budget, it has been returned to the member schools as either a membership dividend, a bonus for being a host of a level of competition in any of the 48 different state tournament series, or as reimbursement for individuals qualifying for the state final(s) in the sports other than those designated for team reimbursement. There are nearly 1,200 different local tournaments and/or meets hosted by member schools in the 46 state series sponsored by the IHSA each school year.

Administration

A full-time staff of 25, which is housed in the Association's office in Bloomington, is charged with the responsibility to administer the activities according to the IHSA purpose and within the framework of the Constitution and By-laws.

Communication

The IHSA maintains a clear channel of communication between member schools and persons associated with member schools through numerous direct mailings, other publications, pamphlets, and information posted on the IHSA's Web Site.

State Final Television Coverage

The eight Boys Football championship games and the complete Boys and Girls Basketball state final tournaments are broadcast on the IHSA Television Network, a network of basic cable stations throughout Illinois which cover IHSA programming.

Add A. Tude

The nation's first sportsmanship mascot was created in the summer of 1997, and appeared in public for the first time at the inaugural Sportsmanship Summit, Sept. 29-30, 1997. Now Add A. Tude™ appears at IHSA state final tournaments and visits member school through a regular year-long booking program. Add A. Tude™ plays a key role in sportsmanship education and promotion campaigns conducted by IHSA in conjunction with the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA).