The Arizona Interscholastic Association’s executive board ruled Wednesday that Notre Dame violated a bylaw when it permitted football players to wear their gear in a summer class the school started.

The bylaw is Out of Season Football Activities (23.8.1 and .2). Once it receives a written notification of the violation, Notre Dame has 10 days to appeal the ruling, which Notre Dame plans on doing, said the school’s athletic director, Monica Barrett, who attended Monday’s executive board meeting. In October, the executive board will likely address Notre Dame’s response to the out of season violation as well as the response to another alleged violation Notre Dame may have committed.

The AIA’s executive director, Dr. Harold Slemmer, said that the board is aware that Notre Dame allegedly sent invitations to prospective student-athletes to attend Notre Dame, a violation of the recruitment rule (15.12). Dr. Slemmer said that Notre Dame is planning to respond to the recruiting allegations by Friday. 

Proposed timeline for executive director position

The board approved the timeline for hiring an executive director that will succeed Dr. Slemmer.

Sending a survey to the AIA’s member schools will be the first step in the process. That survey will ask members schools to list the leadership qualities they would like see in the next executive director. 

That information will then be shared with the board in November. In December, a job posting with a job description and expectations will be sent out.

The interviews of candidates will begin in February, and the finalists will then have a chance to speak to the AIA’s Legislative Council. Finally, in March, the board will designate who the AIA should hire.

1A football concerns

To avoid scheduling issues due to game and season cancellations in 8-man football, Dr. Slemmer proposed to push back the scheduling of 8-man games to August. This will avoid scheduling schools that cancelled their seasons. 

The scheduling change may also happen in the 2A.

Membership comments 

During the membership comments portion of the meeting, board member Sister Lynn Winsor, Xavier Prep’s athletic director, recapped the recent successful Arizona Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association conference that was held in Prescott. 

More than 190 athletic directors attended the conference in which 16 athletic directors were honored and a new Hall of Fame administrators class was inducted. Next year Phoenix will host the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. 

Agenda items approved

These agenda items were approved Wednesday:

--Whiteriver East Fork Lutheran’s application to become an associate AIA member.

--Peoria Unified District’s request to add a badminton, swim, dive, cross country, girls volleyball and boys and girls golf tournament to promote participation during its district fall tournament schedule.

--The 6A Conference’s recommended sports advisory committee member list.

--Sierra Linda’s request to allow some football players to participate in more games than permitted. The program wants to augment its depleted junior varsity ranks with varsity players. Last year, Sierra Linda canceled its junior varsity program. “We are trying to keep our program alive,” Sierra Linda athletic director Dr. John Renouard told the board Wednesday.

--The verification of faculty at 15 private, parochial, BIA, college prep and special function schools.

--Additional game request from Cortez, Lake Havasu, Blue Ridge, Boulder Creek, South Mountain, San Manuel, and Apache Junction.

--The paper review requests for hardship eligibility (domicile rule, legal guardian) from Hamilton, Desert Vista, Boulder Creek, Chandler, Perry (three requests), Chino Valley, Combs, and McClintock.  

--The paper review requests for hardship eligibility (domicile rule, ward of the court) of Cibola and North Canyon.

--The student eligibility appeal (age rule) of Catalina.

--The contests and or program cancellation requests from 16 schools.

School violations

What follows is a list of violations schools self reported and the punishment they received. 

Advisement for Higley. Some ninth grade spiritline members were fitted for uniforms before tryouts were held.

 Warning for Camp Verde. A student completed a concussion course from a non-approved organization.  

 Warning for Cholla. A varsity player practiced with the football team but wasn’t cleared to do so. The athlete hadn’t completed his physical and parent permit/emergency card.   

Advisement for Mogollon. A volunteer coach attended a practice and one junior varsity game without school board approval.

Advisement for Youngker. A group of freshmen cheer squad members performed with an All-Star cheer program during Youngker’s cheer season. School spiritline members are not allowed to practice or compete with any other cheer/pom group, team, or club team during the interscholastic season.

Advisement for Holbrook. The junior varsity teams of Wickenburg and Holbrook held a 20-play scrimmage after Holbrook denied Wickenburg’s request to cancel a game. Junior varsity teams are not allowed to participate in scrimmages. 

According to the AIA’s bylaws, here’s a description of the AIA’s penalties: 

An advisement is a word of caution. 

A warning places a school in jeopardy of being placed on probation if another violation of any rule or regulation is committed. A school will not be eligible for the Overall Excellence Award during a warning period.  

Probation. If a school or one of its sports program is placed on probation, that school/program is ineligible for the postseason and will not receive any award for achievement in that sport. A school is not eligible also for the Overall Excellence Award during its probation period.