INDIANAPOLIS — A state lawmaker abandoned a bill on Wednesday that would have effectively eliminated the Indiana High School Athletic Association and replaced it with a board under the state Department of Education.
Rep. David Niezgodski, D-South Bend, is upset over the way the IHSAA has handled the eligibility case of a female high school basketball player in South Bend.
He said the IHSAA, which said the bill was not justified, had lined up several lawmakers to oppose it so he withdrew it on the final day for bills to clear their house of origin. But he said he still got his message across that the IHSAA was an arrogant organization that feels it is not accountable and is above the law.
“This bill is sending a message that needs to be sent and I think I will be a spokesman for a great many today that would like to send that message,” Niezgodski said.
IHSAA Commissioner Blake Ress said the bill was not needed, and the accusation that the organization was not accountable was false. The private, nonprofit organization sets rules and policies for 410 member high schools, and Ress noted that high school principals elect its board of directors.
Niezgodski was angered with how the IHSAA has handled the case of Jasmine Watson, a high school basketball player who transferred from Elkhart Memorial High School to Washington High School in South Bend several months ago.
Elkhart officials disputed her eligibility, claiming she transferred for basketball reasons, and the IHSAA agreed and ruled her ineligible. The family says the move took place because her mother lost her job and home and had to move for economic reasons, Niezgodski said.
A St. Joseph Circuit Court ruling supported Watson and has allowed her to play this season, but the IHSAA has appealed the ruling. Ress said the IHSAA appealed because the court ruling was so broad that it would prevent the organization from enforcing any of its rules on Washington High School.
The House Education Committee approved Niezgodski’s bill last week and sent it to the full House.
“Through the years, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have complained about the heavy-handedness demonstrated by the IHSAA in everything from the decision to move to multi-class basketball to their arbitrary rulings on whether young people can play athletics,” Niezgodski said at the time. “What sticks out in all of these instances is a cavalier contempt for the feelings of the lives of athletes and their families.”
The bill would have created a division of interscholastic athletics, which would be governed by a nine-member board of directors appointed by the state superintendent of public instruction.
The girls basketball team at Washington High School in South Bend is 25-0 this season and is set to play Pendleton Heights High School in the 4A semi-state round on Saturday.
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