Board of Directors Meeting Release: October 5, 2023

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. --- Boys Volleyball continued its journey to full implementation in 2024-2025 on Thursday, Oct. 5 when the Minnesota State High School League’s Board of Directors approved a task force recommendation that Boys Volleyball be played as a spring sport.  

For the 2023-2024 year, Boys Volleyball is being played as an emerging sport under the direction of the Minnesota Boys High School Volleyball Association. Since 2019, Boys Volleyball has been played in the spring. From its inception, Boys Volleyball has grown to nearly 2,000 annual participants, which ranks Minnesota as 10th in the country for that sport.  

During its regularly scheduled meeting, the Board of Directors heard from Osseo activities coordinator Bill Quan, who served as chair of the Boys Volleyball Season Placement Task Force. In sharing data and feedback from stakeholders, he cited established sustainability and growth potential as two primary reasons for recommending the spring season placement.  

Other research shared was that numerous participants said they play sports in other seasons. Other criteria considered in making the recommendation include the availability of high school coaches and officials. The task force acknowledged some factors for placement in the fall, yet added that Boys Volleyball in the spring is the national norm.   

“There is a lot of excitement with Boys Volleyball on the way under the League’s direction,” Quan said. “The task force looked at all the data, surveyed many people and put a great deal of thought and reflection into this recommendation. We firmly believe that spring is the best fit.” 

This past May, the League’s 48-member Representative Assembly approved an amendment to Bylaw 520 to include Boys Volleyball as a sanctioned interscholastic sport beginning with the 2024-2025 school year. With the approval of the bylaw, Minnesota became the 25th state association to sanction the sport. A task force was then created this past summer to research and make a recommendation for the season of competition. 

“On behalf of the Board of Directors, we are appreciative of the great service performed by the Boys Volleyball Task Force,” said Board of Directors President Jim Smokrovich, principal of East Ridge High School in Woodbury. “Their work has given the League and its member schools continued momentum and enthusiasm in the full implementation of Boys Volleyball.” 

With the approval of the recommendation, League Staff shared information with the Board of Directors for the continued planning of Boys Volleyball implementation. It includes establishing a Boys Volleyball Coaches Advisory Committee, developing a state tournament date that works within Bylaw 520, determining Competitive Section Placement in the spring of 2024 and exploring options for a state tournament venue.   

In other Action Items, the Board of Directors:  

• Approved a Team State Tournament Seeding Subcommittee recommendation that permits each Team Sport Advisory Committee and/or the sport’s tournament director to propose to the Board of Directors a team sport seeding option to be selected from:  
• Option 1: Team sport seeds Nos. 1-5 with a random draw for seeds Nos. 6, 7 and 8. 
• Option 2: Team sport seeds all teams once per state tournament. 
• Option 3: Team sport does not seed in the first round of the tournament. The team sport will use a regional/sectional or scheduled rotation.  

• Approved the reformatted Dance Team Rules Book for 2022-2024.  

• Approved a Spring Activity Advisory Proposal to add a third day to the Softball State Tournament beginning in 2024. 

• Approved a Spring Activity Advisory Proposal in Speech to adjust the requirement for citations with the use of visual aids, the definition of stage properties and the implementation of a tie-breaker. 

• Approved a Spring Activity Advisory Proposal in Track and Field to add a 400-meter event in the wheelchair division at the section and state meet levels, effective in 2024. 

• Approved a Spring Activity Advisory Proposal in Track and Field to change the method of calculating the qualifying standards for the state meet. The new standard would be determined by taking the average of the performance of the 9th place finisher in the state preliminaries in the previous three years. 

• Approved an Executive Committee recommendation to support the League as a Presenting Sponsor in hosting the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) Sports Officiating Summit in 2027. The Summit will take place July 25-27 and Officiate Minnesota Day is scheduled for July 24. As the host state partner, the League provides $25,000 towards the cost of the event and receives 100 scholarships for attendees and six scholarships for League Staff. This supports a League strategic direction to continue advocating for the recruitment and retention of officials.  

• Approved a Finance Committee recommendation to set the price of admission for the Cross Country State Meet at $13 for adults and $8 for students which is identical to the Track and Field State Meet. This is the first time the Cross Country State Meet will be a ticketed event, per a directive of the Board of Directors that seeks a form of revenue from each state tournament.