Rules

The MHSA executive board recently met for their MHSA 2010 Annual meeting. There were six proposals on the agenda that had mixed reviews.
The one that sparked my interested was the first one: to allow eighth graders to participate in high school athletics.
Alberton Public Schools propose the following amendment to By-Laws, Article II, Section (5) STUDENT

BELOW NINTH GRADE, subpart 5.1 on page 20 of the current MHSA Handbook:
5.1 No student who is enrolled in a grade below the ninth shall be eligible to participate in an
Association contest, except as noted in Part C or eighth grade students meeting the following
requirements:
a. Eighth grade student(s) may play on a high school volleyball and basketball team. The number
allowed for practice/participation would be those needed to make a scrimmage type situation for
the team. This would be twelve (12) for volleyball and ten (10) for basketball. A track team
without sufficient numbers for a relay team may use eighth grade students only on their relay
teams. (A high school team may have more than one eighth grade student on their team.)
b. Permission for eighth grade participation must be requested by the school and authorization
granted by the Executive Director of the MHSA. All eighth grade player names will be submitted
to the MHSA Executive Director prior to their first practice. Those eighth grade practice
participants would be eligible to play in the varsity contests upon meeting all eligibility criteria and
upon approval granted by the MHSA Executive Director.
c. Eighth grade students allowed to participate by the Executive Director will have eight semesters
of high school eligibility remaining when they enroll in the ninth grade.
The official MHSA waiver form must be used.

Proposed replacement:
5.1 Eighth grade students are allowed to play in any sanctioned MHSA sport in all classes (AA,
A, B, C) if the local school district has approved participation for eighth grade students.
Eighth grade students who are allowed to participate by their local school district will have
eight semesters of high school eligibility remaining when they enroll in the ninth grade.
Rationale:
1. Takes the decision out of the hands of the MHSA Executive Director or Executive Board and places
it at the local level. Each and every district would decide whether to allow eighth grade students the
opportunity to participate.
2. Would allow smaller schools a chance to fill junior varsity schedules.
3. Would help fill smaller wrestling weights for schools.
As Montana’s enrollment numbers shrink, the time has arrived that we allow eighth grade students the
chance to participate. The decision would be local control only.

In Minnesota, seventh graders are allowed to try out for varsity athletics and if they make the team, they play. If they make the JV team, they play. Sixth graders are allowed to participate on the swimming/diving teams since there aren’t any middle school swim/dive teams.
Yea, things can get a little weird when you have seventh or eighth graders riding the bus and spending a lot of time with seniors in high school. My opinion is that if the seventh/eighth grader is good enough to play at that high level at that young of an age, than let them. They are going to get bored at the lower levels they are forced to play at. My brother was that way in baseball. As a seventh grader, he played middle school baseball and rocked it. The next year, he tried out for varsity and was a starter ever since. I was a senior when he was an eighth grader on the varsity team, so it would be weird that he was hanging out with kids my age, but things worked out.
In Montana, the rationale might be a little bit different, as in this proposal is to help fill JV and sometimes varsity teams. Its more about participation than skill. Still, I agree with the proposal.
Currently, eighth graders are allowed to play on basketball, volleyball and track. This proposal aims at wrestling, I think, since football teams are usually full.
There are many wrestling teams that forfeit at the lower weight classes because it can be hard to find a high schooler that is at 98 pounds or lower. At the least, the eighth grader can help fill those lower classes and more kids are able to participate.
North Dakota allows 8th-graders to play certain sports, although contact sports like football aren't included.

Behind this proposal is the declining enrollment in the Class C schools. They have 100 votes and two-thirds is needed to pass the resolution.
The original proposal by Alberton would have extended 8th-grade participation to all classes and all sports, but that was amended by Medicine Lake to apply to Class C schools only, and to exclude football.
That amendment passed, and the schools voted 79-69 to pass the rules change. But because two-thirds of the schools must ratify amendments to MHSA bylaws, the proposal failed.

This means that the rules will not change, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be studied and brought up again next year.

All of the proposals can be viewed at http://www.mhsa.org/MHSAInfo.htm under the January 2010 meeting.