NCHSAA adds lacrosse as official sport for 2009-10

At its winter board meeting Wednesday, the N.C. High School Athletic Association board of directors officials sactioned boys and girls lacrosse for 2009-10. Details about number of games, sports seasons and playoff qualification will be worked out and approved prior to the start of school in 2009.

The board also:
* Moved the start of the 2009 basketball practice to Nov. 9 and allowed schools to play four games in a week if the fourth is on a non-school day. NCHSAA member schools now will be able to play in 16-team holiday tournaments

* Required students, coaches or administrators who are ejected from a contest to complete the STAR Sportsmanship program before returning to participation.

* Lowered the threshold for making teams ineligible for the playoffs for sportsmanship violations. A team is ineligible for the playoffs if it has three players or coaches ejected for fighting during a season or if it has four players or coaches ejected.

* Denied an appeal from Greenville Rose to change its conference placement beginning in 2009-10.

* Authorized NCHSAA staff to look at the option of using a 24-team bracket in 1-A dual team tennis, if needed

* Approved a change that high school tennis teams may play four matches in a single week if the fourth is on a non-school day, starting with the spring season of 2009.

* Reviewed current policy on fighting; change policy to "a team whose players or coaches accumulate three individual ejections for fighting (note: if a situation occurs where four players on one team are ejected during one fighting incident, then those four individual ejections will cause the team to lose its playoff privileges)"

* Raised the ticket prices for regional basketball tournament from eight to nine dollars, effective with the 2010 tournament.

-- Observer News Services