By Ross Shinberg
Regional Sports Editor
The Iowa High School Athletic Association’s Board of Control last week approved multiple changes for future prep sports and seasons.
Most significantly, the IHSAA and the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union have agreed to move girls’ tennis and boys’ golf in classes 3A, 2A and 1A to the fall season starting with the 2025-26 school year.
“Our member schools have been asking for ways to relieve the crowded spring sports seasons for years,” said Erin Gerlich, the executive director of the IGHSAU. “The new changes provide relief in an already busy spring, and an opportunity for the IGHSAU and IHSAA to enhance the state tournament experience for tennis and golf.”
In the 2023 IHSAA Membership Survey with nearly 500 respondents, when asked if one of golf, soccer or tennis were to move to the fall, which would be their preference, a majority 52.5 percent of voters chose golf.
Boys’ class 4A golf will remain in the fall as it has since 1993.
“Reducing the congestion in the spring schedule has been a topic of conversation among Ads, our staffs, representative councils, boards and the joint IHSAA and IGHSAU committee for several years,” said Tom Keating, the executive director for the IHSAA. “Moving our Class 3A, 2A and 1A golf competitions to the fall to align with Class 4A is a step towards easing that congestion.”
Keating added, “Other Midwest states have found success with this model and I am confident our schools will adjust to the new format. While we recognize some of the initial challenges, the advantages of reducing scheduling congestion in the spring, reducing lost class time and giving the option of having the same coach for spring and fall combine to lead us in this direction.”
Additionally, the IHSAA Board of Control approved other rules changes to basketball, golf and tennis.
For basketball, following an NFHS rule adoption for states using a shot clock, the closely guarded ‘five seconds’ rule will be eliminated starting this year.
Specific to IHSAA classes 4A and 3A in Iowa, substate final games will no longer be played at neutral sites. The higher-seeded team will host in its home gym.
In golf, for classes 3A, 2A and 1A, three teams will advance in each round of postseason play. This rule stands even if a school playing on its home course qualifies.
Lastly, for tennis, a consistent scoring system will be introduced for postseason matches.
Singles and doubles will feature ad scoring and a 10-point match tiebreaker instead of a complete third set.
Consolation bracket and coed matches will not be affected by this change.
The Board of Control and IHSAA/IGHSAU joint committee also explored the possibility of breaking up the boys’ and girls’ bowling seasons starting in the 2025-26 school year.
“This concept would potentially end the current coed format and allow for staggered start and finish within the current 16-week schedule,” per the release. “The individual tournament will now also bowl out to eighth place, similar to the team tournament.”