Number of factors cited in proposal to shelve high school sports

B6

By Kevin Barrett
CanadaEast News Service

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The fate of five sports in the provincial high school athletic roster will be determined today at the annual meeting of the New Brunswick Interscholastic Athletic Association in Fredericton.

Last month, the executive committee of the NBIAA filed a motion to shelve baseball, softball, golf, curling and swimming from the organization's provincial championship menu.

"There is a motion about eliminating some sports," Peter Cory, executive director of the NBIAA, said yesterday. "They tried that two years ago. There are (some) sports that don't fit the criteria that we really believe should be in for a school sport sanctioned activity."

He cited factors such as the shortness of competitive seasons, limited tryout times and inadequate time for training as some of the concerns regarding the sports identified. A similar motion in 2007 was defeated by one vote.

There are several other motions on the floor today, including one to cap participation in the junior division to two years, rather than allowing players who have to play junior varsity for three or four years, should the athlete be forced to repeat a grade.

Currently, all students in Grade 9 or 10 are eligible to play junior varsity athletics.

Also, there is a move to amend the classification system from the current setup of AAA and AA and to include a second tier in each class.

Last year, the NBIAA membership approved an amalgamation of the classification into the two levels -- AAA and AA -- from the three stages -- AAA, AA and A -- it had used previously.

All of the motions field 30 days prior today's meeting require a vote of 50 per cent plus one vote in order to pass. Motions can come from the floor today but those will require at least 75 per cent of the vote in order to pass.

The annual meeting will take place at the New Brunswick Teacher's Federation offices in Fredericton, beginning at 9:30 a.m. and 76 schools are eligible to vote on the motions.

A number of other items have been approved in various sport's operational meetings.

Some of these include:

* The 10-man division of high school football will return in the fall. Eight schools have registered for next season, meeting the NBIAA requirement for the number of teams required to hold a provincial championship;

* Basketball games will feature a 24-second shot clock next season as well as an eight --second clock to advance the ball over half.

* Regular season overtime games in hockey will feature four-on-four action, a change from the five-on-five format used this past season.

* Players suspended in regional or provincial playdowns must sit out the next game in the playoffs and not serve the suspension in any kind of exhibition contest in between.