While still waiting to see what kind of form the 2020-21 high school sports season will take, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association has okayed changes in several sports, most notably wrestling, ice hockey and baseball.
At its July 29 meeting, NYSPHSAA’s central committee approved, by a vote of 28-13, a shift from 15 to 13 weight classes in wrestling in a trial run for the next two years.
Most notably, the 99-pound weight class was eliminated, with the hope that small-school teams will have an easier time filling rosters for matches rather than having to forfeit bouts.
Statistics released by NYSPHSAA revealed that 532 of the 719 wrestlers certified at 99 pounds (nearly 74 percent) were seventh, eighth and ninth-graders.
Under the new setup, the lightest weight class is 102 pounds, with shifts to 110 and 118 pounds after previous categories of 106, 113 and 120 pounds. Each of the 10 weight classes from 126 to 285 pounds remains the same.
The central committee also approved a change in ice hockey games for 2020-21 where 17-minute periods would take place instead of the previous 15 minutes.
Longer periods also mean longer penalty times, with minor penalties now covering two minutes instead of 90 seconds and major penalties going to five or 10 minutes, depending on the infraction.
Also, when regional and state championships take place, there will be three officials – a referee and two linesmen. Previously, state tournament games only had two on-ice officials.
For baseball, NYSPHSAA approved a revision in the pitch-count rules for baseball starting in 2021.
The numbers vary based on the month, the number of days’ rest and the amount of pitches thrown, but pitchers can work up to 85 pitches in March and then get four days’ rest, with the maximum number increasing to 105 in April and 125 in May and beyond.
In field hockey, the central committee approved NYSPHSAA’s earlier recommendation of having a running clock in a game whenever a team went ahead by five goals.
Another key rules change that might not affect the 2020-21 season, but could have an impact down the road, involves a team having to declare itself ineligible for the season if it played too many regular-season contests.
Now the rules say that if a team did play more than the maximum number of contests, individual sections have the option of suspending the team’s coach but keeping players eligible.
“The restrictive nature of the NYSPHSAA rule to declare the entire team or the individual athlete ineligible for the remainder of the season penalizes the student-athletes and not the individual most responsible for the rule (i.e. the head coach),” the resolution said.
Locally, Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena bid to host the 2021, 2022 and 2023 state girls volleyball championships, but lost out on that challenge to the current hosts, with the girls staying at Glens Falls’ Cool Insuring Arena and the boys at Albany’s Capital Center.
With NYSPHSAA having canceled its fall sports state championships for 2020, the association’s COVID-19 Task Force is scheduled to meet after Governor Andrew Cuomo announces early this week whether schools will open on time. The current plan is to have fall sports practices begin on Sept. 21.
