Page 16 - 2020 IHSAA Annual Report

2019–20: The Year in Review

In December, six members were elected to the continues to be a work in progress, not only
IHSAA Board of Directors including: for high schools in Indiana but throughout
the nation.
• Tom Finicle, Athletic Director,
Southwood High School The year was unfolding as good years do—
better than most, in fact, because attendance
• Nathan Dean, Athletic Director, for the sectional round of the boys basketball
Jimtown High School tournament was up by more than 11,000 fans
and the match-ups for a thrilling regional
• Matt Martin, Athletic Director, round promised even bigger crowds. And then
Knightstown High School on the eve of the regional, less than 24 hours
before the best 64 basketball teams in Indiana
• Jim Brown, Athletic Director, were scheduled to take the court—specifically,
Fishers High School on Friday, March 13—the world of high school
sports in Indiana came to a screeching halt.
• Jeff Doyle, Principal,
Barr-Reeve High School You know the rest of the story.

• Mike Whitten, Principal,
Boonville High School

The IHSAA continued to emphasize Brochures with
sportsmanship throughout the year, beginning guidelines for fan
with the distribution of sportsmanship kits behavior were
to every high school in Indiana in August distributed to all
and continuing with a robust social media member-schools
campaign directed primarily to the parents this year. They
of student-athletes and other adult fans, an were specifically
audience that, according to most athletic created for
directors, is guilty of the worst behavior. parents of
The good news about sportsmanship in student-athletes.
Indiana is that 23 high schools met all the
criteria to receive the 2019-20 IHSAA Sports-
manship Award. On the minus side, however,
more unsporting reports were filed during the
2019-20 school year than in the previous year
and almost twice as many fans were ejected
from games and meets. So, sportsmanship

FALL TOURNAMENT ATTENDANCE FIGURES
Sport 2018-19 2019-20 Increase/Decrease % Change
Boys Cross Country 16,632 16,082 -550 -3.31%
Girls Cross Country 16,658 16,005 -653 -3.92%
Football 257,260 279,061 21,801 8.47%
Girls Golf 598 776 178 29.77%
Boys Soccer 74,010 63,847 -10,163 -13.73%
Girls Soccer 53,653 54,378 725 1.35%
Boys Tennis 1,190 1,190 0 --
Volleyball 80,558 88,629 8,071 10.02%
Fall Total 500,559 519,968 19,409 3.88%

16 INDIANA HIGH S CHOOL A THLE TIC ASS OCIA TION Annual Report 2020