The Indiana high school baseball coaches association drafted four proposals focused on participation, adding an extra week and desired postseason changes.
The Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association drafted four proposals focused on participation, adding an extra week to the season, modifications to the state tournament and seeding.
The coaches' association presented its proposals to the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrator’s Association on Nov. 20 for review and received feedback late last week. Brian Abbott, executive director of the IHSBCA, said the coaches will meet again in the new year to discuss the IIAAA’s suggestions before presenting their refined proposals to the Indiana High School Athletic Association for approval in May.
In the first proposal, the IHSBCA presents the idea of adding an extra week at the beginning of the season. Currently, spring break falls conflicts with the baseball season, and teams aren’t allowed to practice that week. Abbott emphasized “we are not asking for more games, but more time to play games to allow for team development.” If the IHSAA were to approve this proposal, the official start date for practice would be March 16 rather than March 23.
The second proposal considers teams with smaller rosters and adds language to Rule 51 of the IHSAA By-Law that focuses on participation. The second proposal states on days when JV and varsity are scheduled to play the same school, five varsity players can participate in the JV contest if varsity finishes its game first and JV needs more players.
“The ability of member schools to maintain and properly staff sub-varsity level teams is becoming increasingly more at risk,” the IHSBCA cited as its rationale for annexing Rule 51. “This is affecting the skill development and participation opportunities of our sub-varsity players.”
The first and second proposals received the highest approval rate from the IIAAA, with 83% of athletic directors favoring an extra week of play and 86% backing varsity participation in junior varsity games. As for the coaches, 96% approved shifting the start date by a week, and 98% supported the second proposal.
While the IIAAA heavily supports the first two IHSBCA proposals, members are reluctant to endorse Nos. 3 and 4. The third proposal vouches for a change to the sectional round in the state tournament.
Ninety percent of coaches want the number of sectionals to double from 16 to 32 per class while maintaining the number of sectional sites at 16. There will be a maximum of four teams per sectional. Each site will host two sectionals, with matchups drawn at random.
As a result, regionals will consist of four teams instead of two. This means the number of sectional champions will double from 64 to 128 by simply reallocating a sectional round to a regional semifinal.
With the current format, the sectional window is six days (Wednesday to Monday), and only five can be used to play games. Therefore, in a seven-to-eight-team tournament, a team is required to rest multiple pitchers with an “inequitable number of days rest per competing teams,” the IHSBCA said.
Per the pitch count rule, a pitcher needs four days rest if he throws over 100 pitches in a game. If a team’s best pitcher throws on Wednesday, he’ll have an extra day of rest if his team were to advance to Monday’s sectional final. Pitchers that play their first game on Thursday don’t have that advantage, leaving teams with a pitching mismatch in the championship game.
The IHSBCA believes a balanced sectional bracket will allow for “equalizing theoretical pitching matchups and usage.” If passed, the third proposal will also increase rain date buffers and lessen the impact of scheduling constraints produced by weather, graduations and final exams.
“This proposal allows every team that competes in the regional to have full access to all players since they will have the proper and required amount of rest," Abbott said.
Only 46% of IlAAA members supported the third proposal. Abbott said the IIAAA wants the coaches to consider using Tuesday as a play date to get all first-round games completed on Tuesday and Wednesday. He added that members don’t like the idea of a one-game sectional. The additional week presented in the first proposal would allow the sectional round to start on a Tuesday.
“(Proposal three) is about player safety as much as anything,” Noblesville coach and IHSBCA member Justin Keever said. “Dividing the sectionals into two, maintaining the number of sectionals, redistributing early round games, and aligning rest opportunities allow for a bracket that more accurately reflects competitive merit and player safety. These changes enhance fairness, reduce avoidable competitive disadvantages, ease logistical obstacles and elevate both player welfare and the integrity of championship play.
“These proposals give our players a fair and balanced postseason experience. Baseball depends heavily on pitching schedules, recovery time, and unpredictable weather, which makes it harder to create a level playing field than in most sports. By adjusting the format, we’re ensuring that the outcome is determined by how teams play, not by scheduling advantages or disadvantages.”
Proposal four introduces a new concept to high school baseball: seeding. If passed, it would replace the blind draw setup. Only 40% of IIAAA members support seeding. Abbott admitted the IIAAA is still trying to understand seeding because of its novelty in high school baseball.
Keever and the IHSBCA cite baseball’s unique structure as a reason for seeding. The fourth proposal calls the random draw an “unfair model” and added, “random brackets create structural disadvantages in baseball that simply do not exist in other team sports.” It added scheduling advantages should be earned by merit. Coaches believe implementing seeding adds intrigue to the regular season.
“Without seeding into smaller, more manageable sectionals, the path to a championship is too often determined too much by the calendar, and not enough by the competition,” Keever said.
Eighty-four percent of coaches support seeding, a tally Keever labelled “very telling.”
"The IHSAA wrestling state tournament is an example of seeding being used -- it is one of the best events the IHSAA hosts, in large part because the best athletes are brought together and the bracket is seeded to honor what they earned during the season,” Keever said. “Baseball has increased competitive variables, as pitching availability can swing entire tournaments. Seeding rewards teams for their full-season performance and ensures any scheduling advantages are earned on merit, not assigned by luck.”
Abbott, Keever, and coaches in the IHSBCA are passionate about their proposals, which they’ve been developing the past four years.
“There’s a lot of good baseball talent coming out of Indiana. Obviously, we want to showcase our sport, but more than anything, we want our coaches to have the time to be with their players and develop them,” Abbott said when asked about the overall goal of the proposals. “It gives kids greater opportunity to work with their high school coaching staff and teammates.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana high school baseball coaches association draft new proposals
Category: General Sports
