Kentucky High School Athletic Association
Encyclopedia
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) has been the governing body of Kentucky
high school athletics since 1917. Located in Lexington
, the organization sanctions competition in the following sports:
•Competitive bowling, bass fishing, and archery will become sanctioned during the 2011-2012 school year.
Competition in girls' slow pitch softball was discontinued after the 2006-07 academic year.
and Fort Knox
High Schools, located on the U.S. Army
bases of the same names. Fort Campbell High is actually located on the Tennessee
side of the base, which straddles the state border, but the United States Department of Defense
organizes the schools it runs on the two bases under a single district.
Not all secondary schools in Kentucky participate in the KHSAA. About two dozen small, private religious schools are sanctioned by the Kentucky Christian Athletic Association.
Whether public, private, or federally administered, all member schools compete for state championships on an equal basis. Unlike some other states' school athletic governing bodies, the KHSAA governs only athletics; it does not govern band, cheerleading, academic competitions, or other extracurricular activities. These activities are governed by separate bodies.
being the only other remaining state with a single state basketball championship for each sex. Of the 13 sports in which the KHSAA sanctions state championships, only three are organized in multiple classes—cross-country, football, and track. As of the 2007-08 school year, the classification rules for the three sports which are divided are:
The 2007-08 school year was the first for a six-class alignment in football; previously, a four-class system had been used.
Schools were allowed to petition the KHSAA for reclassification before the football realignment became final. Eleven schools requested that the KHSAA place them in a higher class than their enrollment warranted; six of these requests were approved. No school was allowed to play in a lower class, although the KHSAA accepted one school's request to adjust its enrollment downward. As a result of these requests, the final number of schools in each classification was:
In all three sports, classification is based on a four-year average enrollment in grades 9 through 12. Single-sex schools are deemed to have double their actual average enrollment for cross-country and track; prior to the 2007 realignment, football also used this rule. In cross-country and track, the KHSAA rule is to divide the classes so that 40% of all schools that sponsor the sport are in Class A and 30% are in both Class AA and AAA.
player O. J. Mayo
first played on a high school varsity team as a seventh-grader at Rose Hill Christian School
in Ashland
, and current PGA Tour
golfer JB Holmes
first played on the golf team of Taylor County High School in Campbellsville
while in the third grade. The eligibility "clock" for such students does not start until they enter ninth grade.
Like all U.S. jurisdictions, Kentucky has an upper age limit for high school athletic participation. The KHSAA rule is that students must be under age 19 as of the July 31 preceding the current academic year. This particular rule is actually codified in Kentucky Revised Statutes
§ 156.270(2)(e).
A student who is repeating a grade during high school for any reason is not allowed to compete during his or her second year at that grade level.
Homeschoolers
are prohibited from participating in any KHSAA-sanctioned activities. Moreover, KHSAA schools are also prohibited from competing against teams composed of homeschoolers.
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
high school athletics since 1917. Located in Lexington
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
, the organization sanctions competition in the following sports:
- Boys and girls
- Basketball
- BowlingBowlingBowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...
* - Cross-country
- GolfGolfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
- Soccer
- SwimmingSwimming (sport)Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
- TennisTennisTennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
- Track and fieldTrack and fieldTrack and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
- Boys only
- BaseballBaseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
- FootballHigh school footballHigh school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
- WrestlingScholastic wrestlingScholastic wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially Collegiate wrestling with some slight modifications. It is currently...
- Baseball
- Girls only
- Fast pitch softball
- VolleyballVolleyballVolleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
•Competitive bowling, bass fishing, and archery will become sanctioned during the 2011-2012 school year.
Competition in girls' slow pitch softball was discontinued after the 2006-07 academic year.
Schools governed
The KHSAA governs competitions for both public and private schools throughout the state, plus two federally administered schools—Fort CampbellFort Campbell
Fort Campbell is a United States Army installation located astraddle the Kentucky-Tennessee border between Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Tennessee...
and Fort Knox
Fort Knox High School
Fort Knox High School is a high school in Hardin County, Kentucky, serving grades 9-12 on the grounds of Fort Knox. The original building was constructed in 1958, with further additions in 1961, 1966, 1987 and 1989...
High Schools, located on the U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
bases of the same names. Fort Campbell High is actually located on the Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
side of the base, which straddles the state border, but the United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
organizes the schools it runs on the two bases under a single district.
Not all secondary schools in Kentucky participate in the KHSAA. About two dozen small, private religious schools are sanctioned by the Kentucky Christian Athletic Association.
Whether public, private, or federally administered, all member schools compete for state championships on an equal basis. Unlike some other states' school athletic governing bodies, the KHSAA governs only athletics; it does not govern band, cheerleading, academic competitions, or other extracurricular activities. These activities are governed by separate bodies.
Classification
Unlike the situation in most states, the default in Kentucky is to conduct a single state championship for all schools, with no classification of schools by enrollment. Most notably, Kentucky does not divide schools into classes in basketball, with DelawareDelaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
being the only other remaining state with a single state basketball championship for each sex. Of the 13 sports in which the KHSAA sanctions state championships, only three are organized in multiple classes—cross-country, football, and track. As of the 2007-08 school year, the classification rules for the three sports which are divided are:
- Cross-country and track
- Class A — 570 or fewer students
- Class AA — 571-950 students
- Class AAA — More than 950 students
- Football
- Class 6A — The 36 largest schools in the state, based on average enrollment (see below) of boys only, among schools that sponsor the sport.
- Class 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A — Each with 36 schools, in decreasing order of enrollment
- Class A — All remaining schools that sponsor football after the other classes are filled
The 2007-08 school year was the first for a six-class alignment in football; previously, a four-class system had been used.
Schools were allowed to petition the KHSAA for reclassification before the football realignment became final. Eleven schools requested that the KHSAA place them in a higher class than their enrollment warranted; six of these requests were approved. No school was allowed to play in a lower class, although the KHSAA accepted one school's request to adjust its enrollment downward. As a result of these requests, the final number of schools in each classification was:
- Class 6A — 36 schools
- Class 5A — 37 schools
- Class 4A — 35 schools
- Class 3A — 39 schools (now 38)
- Class 2A — 33 schools
- Class A — 41 schools (now 39)
In all three sports, classification is based on a four-year average enrollment in grades 9 through 12. Single-sex schools are deemed to have double their actual average enrollment for cross-country and track; prior to the 2007 realignment, football also used this rule. In cross-country and track, the KHSAA rule is to divide the classes so that 40% of all schools that sponsor the sport are in Class A and 30% are in both Class AA and AAA.
Eligibility considerations
As is standard for high school sports in the U.S., students are limited to four consecutive years of eligibility (grades 9-12), whether or not they participate in any sports during one or more of those years. In football and soccer, students are not allowed to play on the varsity until they are actually enrolled in the ninth grade, and wrestlers cannot compete until they have entered the seventh grade. In other sports, there is no grade restriction; for example, current NBANational Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
player O. J. Mayo
O. J. Mayo
Ovinton J'Anthony "O. J." Mayo , is an American basketball player currently playing with the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA. He signed with the team on July 8, 2008. He played college basketball for the University of Southern California...
first played on a high school varsity team as a seventh-grader at Rose Hill Christian School
Rose Hill Christian High School
Rose Hill Christian High School is a private, non-profit Christian school operated by the Rose Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky. Organized in 1980, the school draws students from several Kentucky counties, Ohio, and West Virginia....
in Ashland
Ashland, Kentucky
Ashland, formerly known as Poage Settlement, is a city in Boyd County, Kentucky, United States, nestled along the banks of the Ohio River. The population was 21,981 at the 2000 census. Ashland is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area . As of the 2000 census, the...
, and current PGA Tour
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
golfer JB Holmes
J. B. Holmes
John Bradley "J.B." Holmes is an American professional golfer.-Early life:Holmes was born in Campbellsville, the seat of Taylor County, in central Kentucky. Holmes began to play on the varsity golf team at Taylor County High School in Campbellsville when he was in the third grade. He suffered a...
first played on the golf team of Taylor County High School in Campbellsville
Campbellsville, Kentucky
Campbellsville is a city in Taylor County, Kentucky, United States. The population within city limits was 10,498 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Taylor County, and the home of Campbellsville University...
while in the third grade. The eligibility "clock" for such students does not start until they enter ninth grade.
Like all U.S. jurisdictions, Kentucky has an upper age limit for high school athletic participation. The KHSAA rule is that students must be under age 19 as of the July 31 preceding the current academic year. This particular rule is actually codified in Kentucky Revised Statutes
Kentucky Revised Statutes
Kentucky Revised Statutes is the name given to the body of laws which govern the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States. They are created pursuant to the Kentucky Constitution and must conform to the limitations set out in the Constitutions of Kentucky and the United States...
§ 156.270(2)(e).
A student who is repeating a grade during high school for any reason is not allowed to compete during his or her second year at that grade level.
Homeschoolers
Homeschooling
Homeschooling or homeschool is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school...
are prohibited from participating in any KHSAA-sanctioned activities. Moreover, KHSAA schools are also prohibited from competing against teams composed of homeschoolers.
See also
- KHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron BowlKHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron BowlThe KHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl is a series of football games, typically held on the first weekend of December, that determine the high school champions of the U.S. state of Kentucky...
(Football State Championships) - Sweet Sixteen (KHSAA State Basketball Championship)Sweet Sixteen (KHSAA State Basketball Championship)The Kentucky High School Athletic Association boys' and girls' state basketball championships are single elimination tournaments held each March featuring 16 high schools. Colloquially known as the Sweet Sixteen , the tournament takes place over 4 days at Lexington's Rupp Arena for the boys until...
- Kentucky Mr. Basketball Award
- Kentucky Mr. Football AwardKentucky Mr. Football AwardThe Kentucky Mr. Football Award is an honor given to the top high school football player in the state of Kentucky and in the KHSAA. Awarded by a panel of sports writers and broadcasters from around the state's Associated Press, many past winners have proceeded to have successful college careers and...