Indiana High School Athletic Association

Last updated

Indiana High School Athletic Association
(IHSAA)
AbbreviationIHSAA
Formation1903
TypeVolunteer; NPO
Legal statusAssociation
PurposeAthletic/Educational
Headquarters9150 Meridian St.
Indianapolis, IN 46240 US
Region served
Indiana
Membership
2024-25 Membership [1]
409 Total High School Members
4 Provisional Members
Official language
English
Commissioner
Paul Neidig
Parent organization
National Federation of State High School Associations
Affiliations 51 High School Athletic Conferences
Budget
2021-22 [2]
$11,315,538
Volunteers
18
Website ihsaa.org
RemarksPhone: (317) 846-6601
Fax: 317-575-4244

The Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) is the arbiter of interscholastic competition among public and private high schools in the U.S. state of Indiana.

Contents

Member schools are classified into four classes based on enrollment, ranging from the smallest, 1A, to the largest, 4A. Some sports provide specific classification, such as football (six classes) and soccer (three).

The IHSAA's boys and girls basketball tournaments, sometimes dubbed Hoosier Hysteria, are some of the oldest and best-attended state basketball tournaments in the United States.

Structure

The IHSAA is divided into three board of director districts: northern, central, and southern. These districts elect three members each to the board of directors.

The northern district is composed of Adams, Allen, Cass, DeKalb, Elkhart, Fulton, Huntington, Jasper, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Lake, LaPorte, Marshall, Miami, Newton, Noble, Porter, Pulaski, St. Joseph, Starke, Steuben, Wabash, Wells and Whitley counties.

The central district is composed of Benton, Blackford, Boone, Clinton, Carroll, Delaware, Fountain, Grant, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Henry, Howard, Jay, Madison, Marion, Montgomery, Parke, Putnam, Randolph, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Vermillion, Warren, and White counties.

The southern district is composed of Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Clay, Crawford, Daviess, Dearborn, Decatur, Dubois, Fayette, Floyd, Franklin, Gibson, Greene, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Morgan, Ohio, Orange, Owen, Perry, Pike, Posey, Ripley, Rush, Scott, Shelby, Spencer, Sullivan, Switzerland, Union, Vanderburgh, Vigo, Warrick, Washington and Wayne counties.

Select board of directors seats are reserved for female, minority, and urban representatives from special Northern and Southern Districts, as well as one private school representative. [3]

Sanctioned sports

Sport [4] First IHSAA State ChampionshipMost Team ChampionshipsSeason
Baseball 1910-118–Andrean, Lafayette Central Catholic, LaPorte (tie)spring
Basketball (boys)1910-118–Marion, Muncie Central (tie)winter
Basketball (girls)1975-767–Heritage Christian winter
Cross Country (boys)1946-4718–Carmel fall
Cross Country (girls)1981-8219–Carmel fall
Football 1973-7417–Bishop Chatard (Indianapolis) fall
Golf (boys)1931-327–Carmel spring
Golf (girls)1973-7411–Martinsville spring
Gymnastics (girls)1972-7313–Valparaiso winter
Soccer (boys)1994-957–Canterbury (Fort Wayne) fall
Soccer (girls)1994-9510–Carmel fall
Softball (girls)1984-857–Center Grove fall
Swimming & Diving (boys)1927-2822–Carmel winter
Swimming & Diving (girls)1974-7537–Carmel winter
Tennis (boys)1967-6821–North Central (Indianapolis) fall
Tennis (girls)1974-7512–Carmel spring
Track & Field (boys)1903-0420–Gary Roosevelt spring
Track & Field (girls)1973-7410—Fort Wayne Northrop spring
Unified Flag Football 2018-191—Bedford North Lawrence, Brownsburg, Carmel, DeKalb, McCutcheon, Mooresville (tie)fall
Unified Track & Field2013-142—Valparaiso, Warsaw spring
Volleyball (boys)2024-25Nonespring
Volleyball (girls)1972-7323–Muncie Burris fall
Wrestling (boys)1921-2224–Bloomington South winter
Wrestling (Girls)2024-25Nonewinter

Athletic Conferences

In the regular season, most of the member-schools' sports activities are governed by Indiana's high school athletic conferences. Some conferences only offer select sports, while others include all. Some schools maintain independence in certain sports, electing not to compete in a conference.

Some smaller sports are governed by other organizations in Indiana. For example, boys' ice hockey, which has fewer participating teams than other sports statewide, is under the auspices of the Indiana State High School Hockey Association (ISHSHA).

Future Conferences

Sport-Specific Conferences

Independents

Controversy

In 2010, the association faced a state lawsuit over the scheduling of girls’ basketball games, which some programs believed disadvantaged girls’ teams by giving more favorable dates and times to boys’ programs. The association won the case when an Indiana judge ruled the schedule was not discriminatory. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin Central High School</span> Public high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

Franklin Central High School (FCHS) is a public four-year high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It is the only high school in the Franklin Township Community School Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pocket Athletic Conference</span>

The Pocket Athletic Conference (PAC) is a high school athletic conference in Southwestern Indiana with its headquarters at Forest Park. It is the largest athletic conference in the state of Indiana with 13 member schools. The conference is composed primarily of Class 3A schools, with a few 2A and one 1A. Schools are currently located in Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, and Warrick counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Eight Conference (IHSAA)</span>

The Big Eight Conference was an athletic conference of IHSAA Class AAA high schools located in Southwestern Indiana. The conference members were small city-based schools located in Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Posey, and Warrick counties in Indiana and once included Wabash County in Illinois. The conference ceased operations with the 2019-20 Winter Season as the final spring season was canceled because of the 2020 Coronavirus Outbreak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Indiana Athletic Conference</span>

The Southern Indiana Athletic Conference (SIAC) is a high school athletic conference based in Evansville, Indiana. Five of the conferences 10 schools; Bosse, Central, Harrison, North, and Reitz; comprise the public Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation. Mater Dei and Memorial are private Catholic high schools run by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Evansville, and the largest member is Castle, a public school located in neighboring Newburgh in Warrick County under the Warrick County School Corporation. The league was founded in 1936, and at one point stretched far across southern and western Indiana: from Mount Vernon in the west to New Albany in the east, and from Evansville in the south to Terre Haute in the north. Jasper and Vincennes Lincoln announced in May 2019 that they would leave the disbanding Big Eight Conference to rejoin the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference beginning with the 2020–21 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoosier Heartland Conference</span>

The Hoosier Heartland Conference is an IHSAA-Sanctioned Athletic Conference in North Central Indiana. It comprises mainly single A and smaller AA schools. Lafayette Central Catholic joined the Hoosier Athletic Conference after the 2010–11 school year, and was replaced by Sheridan, who joined 2012. With the major conference realignment in Indiana in 2015, the conference picked up four schools from neighboring conferences that were folding, as well as a football-only member to balance the new football divisions. However, with the Midwest Conference reforming, the conference will be down to eight schools for the 2018–19 school year, as Delphi will rejoin the conference in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoosier Crossroads Conference</span> High school athletic conference in central Indiana

The Hoosier Crossroads Conference is a member conference of the Indiana High School Athletic Association. Teams first competed in the conference in the 2000-2001 school year. The HCC contains eight high schools in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area. There are two schools in Hendricks County, one in Boone County, four in Hamilton County, and one in Marion County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duneland Athletic Conference</span>

The Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) is a high school athletic conference in Indiana serving eight members of the Indiana High School Athletic Association. Member schools are located in the counties of Lake, LaPorte, and Porter along Indiana's Lake Michigan shore. Each school is classified based on enrollment as 6A or 5A for football and 4A for basketball, the classes for the largest schools in Indiana. The Duneland Conference is also known for its gymnastics programs which have won a combined total of 35 state championship and state runner-up titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Three Rivers Conference (Indiana)</span>

The Three Rivers Conference is a high school athletic conference in northeast Indiana, consisting of schools in Cass, Fulton, Miami, Wabash, and Whitley counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Lakes Conference</span>

The Northern Lakes Conference of Indiana (NLC) is an IHSAA-sanctioned athletic conference of high schools located within Elkhart, Kosciusko, Marshall and St. Joseph counties in northern Indiana, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater South Shore Athletic Conference (IHSAA)</span> High school athletic conference in Indiana

The Greater South Shore Conference is an eight-member Indiana High School Athletic Association athletic conference spanning Lake and Porter counties in Northwest Indiana. Two other members, Boone Grove and Gary West Side, participate only in football, with Boone Grove otherwise participating in the Porter County Conference and Gary West Side otherwise participating in the Great Lakes Athletic Conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoosier Athletic Conference</span>

The Hoosier Athletic Conference is a ten-member IHSAA-Sanctioned conference located within Benton, Cass, Hamilton, Howard, Jasper, Tippecanoe, Tipton and White counties. The conference first began in 1947, and has been in constant competition except for the 1997–98 school year, when membership dropped to three schools. The conference added four schools from the folding Mid-Indiana Conference in 2015. Lewis Cass exited the conference in 2023 and Logansport was added as the replacement starting in 2024. In 2024 Northwestern will exit the conference filling in for North Miami in the Three Rivers Conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mid-Hoosier Conference</span>

The Mid-Hoosier Conference is a seven-member IHSAA-sanctioned athletic association located within Bartholomew, Decatur, Johnson, and Shelby Counties in Central Indiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Central Conference (Indiana)</span>

The North Central Conference is an IHSAA-sanctioned athletic conference consisting of ten large high schools in Cass, Delaware, Grant, Howard, Madison, Marion, Tippecanoe, and Wayne Counties across Central and North Central Indiana. Most of these schools are in 35,000+ population towns like Anderson, Marion, Kokomo, Lafayette, Muncie, and Richmond. Several of the nation's largest gymnasiums belong to members of this conference.

The Northern State Conference is a newly reformed conference that has existed since 1954. The conference went through many changes in membership and ultimately dissolved in 2015 when all of its members left for other conferences. Starting in the 2024-2025 school year, the conference will be reformed with six new schools: Bremen, Jimtown, John Glenn, Knox, LaVille, and Tippecanoe Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indiana High School Athletics Conferences: Mid-Eastern – Northwestern</span>

This is the second of three pages that lists all of the High School athletic conferences located in state of Indiana under the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wabash River Conference</span>

The Wabash River Conference is an eight-member Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA)-sanctioned conference located within Fountain, Parke, Vermillion, and Warren Counties in West Central Indiana. All of the participating schools are either 1A, 2A, or 3A institutions in rural counties. The conference began in 1964 with nine schools who had outgrown their county conferences or had them fold, and has had that number stay relatively consistent since. The only change since was the consolidation of two members, Turkey Run and Rockville, into Parke Heritage High School in 2018 reducing the number of members to 8.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Indiana Conference</span> Indiana high school athletic conference

The Western Indiana Conference is the name of two IHSAA-sanctioned conferences based in West Central Indiana. The first formed as an eight-team league that formed as a basketball league in 1944 as the West Central Conference. The league started expanding in 1945 and changed its name to the Western Indiana Conference. With consolidation forcing many membership changes in the 1970s, the conference folded at four members in 1983.

Rensselaer Central High School is a high school located in Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana. The school is administered by the Rensselaer Central Schools Corporation.

The Indiana High School Boys Basketball Tournament, organized by the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA), is one of the oldest state high school basketball tournament in America. The tournament has often featured future NCAA and National Basketball Association (NBA) players. The Milan Miracle team in the 1953–54 season inspired the 1986 movie Hoosiers. In the early 1920s, the tournament was dominated by the Franklin Wonder Five, who won three consecutive state championships, followed by a college championship at Franklin College. They won several games against professional teams.

References

  1. "IHSAA School Directory".
  2. "ProPublic Nonprofit Explorer: Indiana High School Athletics Association". May 9, 2013.
  3. "IHSAA By-Laws 2022-23".
  4. "Sports | Indiana High School Athletic Association".
  5. Jennifer Nelson. "Judge rules girls' basketball schedule not discriminatory". The Indiana Lawyer.