ASAA adopts new rules

JEREMIAH BARTZ/ Frontiersman sports editor

The Alaska School Activities Association approved a series of rules, aimed to lift the academic requirements of student-athletes, at its board of directors' meetings in Wrangal earlier this week.

Several eligibility rules were adopted.

Beginning in the fall, student-athletes must be enrolled in at least five courses and maintain a 2.0 grade point average to be eligible to participate in all athletics and activities.

In 2006, the one-time transfer allowance without the move of a parent and the possibility to participate in a fifth year of high school activities will be eliminated.

All of the motions were approved by hefty margin.

"I always like it when we hold kids to higher standards," Wasilla assistant principal Dan Michael said. "I believe if we raise expectations, most kids are going to meet them."

Most see the old state-wide eligibility requirements as far too lenient.

"At Wasilla, we have a belief our student-athletes are our models for decorum and academic performance," Michael said. "They're the ones who represent us and we hold them to higher expectations. With the perks come the responsibility."

Currently, the state-wide minimums require student-athletes to be enrolled in only four classes and carry a grade point average equivalent to a D-minus.

"A D-minus in life is not acceptable. A D-minus on the field is not acceptable," Mat-Su School District Chief Schools Administrator Bob Doyle said. "When we see a senior walking across the stage in a varsity letterman's jacket, we want them to have a diploma in their hand."

Schools in the district, such as Wasilla, had already adopted its own rule of a 2.0 grade point average minimum.

"The mission statement is to raise our standards, have kids strive to graduate and be pillars of our community," Houston High School activities director and Region III representative Jamie Smith said. "Get away from the jock syndrome."

The only clause to the enrollment rule states seniors who are on track to graduate and have satisfied all their requirements can take just four classes. Michael said the only problem with this addition is clarity and schools need to ensure people don't get confused. But the addition of elective classes, Michael said, would give students more opportunity.

"We need to work hard as a district to offer more electives to students," Michael said. "A lot of our seniors would take more classes if we had them to offer."

Students now also pass at least five courses in the previous semester to be eligible for activities.

Starting in 2006 student-athletes will no longer have the option of participation in an activity in their fifth year of high school. Currently, if a student only participated in an activity for three years and did not graduate after their senior year, they would be eligible for a fifth year.

"Some of those kids were purposely sabotaging themselves," Michael said. "I don't think it happened very often, but it did happen."

The new rule states students have just eight consecutive semesters of eligibility that begin running out their first day of their freshman year of high school.

Also in 2006, the one time summer transfer with out the move of a parent will be rescinded. Now, for example, a student can attend Palmer High School as a freshman and transfer to Wasilla High School the following year, without the families' change of residence. If this occurs in the future, students will not be eligible to participate in activities for 18 weeks of the school year.

ASAA also adopted a citizenship rule. Beginning in the fall, a student who is expelled from one school will not be eligible in another school during the duration of the expulsion.