Page 23 - 2015 IHSAA Annual Report

SECTION FIVE 2014-15: A YEAR IN REVIEW

affordable, and family-friendly, millions more into the fabric of the state, but also teaches
attended regular season high school sporting student-athletes valuable life lessons about
events at their hometown high school. community service is the IHSAA’s 21st
tournament event, its Unified Sports® Track
High school athletics continue to be one of and Field meet held in June of every year.
the most popular and well-attended spec-
tator sports in Indiana, rain or shine. This past school year, 39 Indiana high schools
participated in the Unified Sports® Track and
Active Community Involvement Field tournament series. Students competed in
five events—long jump, shot put, the 100 meter
One of the greatest strengths of the dash, the 400 meter dash and the 4x100 meter
IHSAA is the fact that it is not isolated relay. The tournament proved to be an invaluable
from the community it serves. reminder about the opportunity we all have to
serve one another, another important life lesson
The story of high school sports is constantly that student-athletes are taught as a result of
being told by the IHSAA to the public at playing a sport in behalf of their high school.
large. The Association is privileged to claim
two of Indiana’s most prominent corporate In Conclusion
citizens as presenting sponsors—the India-
napolis Colts are the presenting sponsor of the Occasionally an unfortunate injury or an
state football tournament, and the Indiana isolated sportsmanship incident or a necessary,
Pacers and Fever sponsor the boys and girls but unpopular, administrative decision nabs
basketball tournaments respectively. And newspaper headlines. But as noted in this report,
statewide television and radio networks as the story of high school sports in Indiana is a
well as the world wide web provide live, play- positive one. During the 2014-15 school year, few
by-play coverage of the Association’s most other activities, if any, touched as many lives in
popular state final tournament events. such a fresh, constructive, reaffirming way as
high school sports.
An example of outreach that not only inte-
grates high school sports more intimately

INDIANA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION ANNUAL REPORT 2015 21