December 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM - DECEMBER LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Discussion (Appears on Minutes Report):  The members of the Legislative Council were provided an update in Executive Session. No action was required.

Discussion (Appears on Minutes Report):  Mr. Reeves updated members of the Legislative Council.  The staff is currently working with members of the legislature to help craft the statutory language for a one time transfer provision. This strategic approach is based on two factors: 

1. The majority (approximately 60%) of school principals who responded to a TSSAA survey prefer the one-time transfer provision, which must occur in between school years, to the current rule, which requires the sending school principal to verify that the transfer is not for athletic or disciplinary reasons.

2. Almost 90% of students transferring under the current transfer provision have done so without objection from the sending school’s principal.

The organization recognizes that its position (favoring the one-time transfer without conditional approval from the sending school’s principal) aligns with lawmakers' intent, providing a clear opportunity for effective engagement. The goal is to ensure the new state law incorporates and maintains the core values of the TSSAA organization.

Specifically, the crafted language should include the three fundamental principles that the TSSAA Bylaws are founded upon:

1. Maintaining athletics in its proper perspective as subordinate to the primary academic mission of the schools.

2. Preventing the exploitation of students for athletic purposes.

3. Fostering fair competition, or a "level playing field," among the TSSAA member schools.

The inclusion of these three fundamental principles in the statute is crucial to clearly define the unique educational mission of interscholastic athletics and prevent it from being governed by the commercial standards of collegiate and professional sports.

Discussion (Appears on Minutes Report):  Mr. Colbert will look into the proposed change to research the legal/liability implications that could exist. The staff will provide statistics for the Legislative Council outlining how many coaches are subject to the training each year by category (non-faculty, classified employee) compared to the total number of coaches, which also includes full-time certified teachers and retired educators who are not subject to having the training.

Discussion (Appears on Minutes Report):  This item was brought to the Legislative Council for discussion.  The TSSAA staff has seen an increase in ejections and unsportsmanlike incidents during preseason scrimmages and needs direction on how to handle these.  The current scrimmage rule states that preseason scrimmages should look more like practices than games, but that is not what is happening anymore, so the language may need to be adjusted.  After the summer, teams must stop scrimmaging on the first official practice date and practice for three days before resuming scrimmaging.  This may need to be adjusted, and the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee does not see any issues with not requiring the three days of practice. It is difficult to determine what one half of a contest looks like in some sports. The language may need to be revised to make it applicable to both individual and team sports. There is also a question of whether the current statement in the Scrimmage Rule, "no tournament format of any type may be used," is still necessary.

The Legislative Council asked staff to review the language and bring a proposal back for consideration in April. No action was required.

 

Discussion (Appears on Minutes Report):  The state needs to determine a standard that must be met before a student can participate with a school team during the summer.