The Arizona Interscholastic Association’s executive board handed Skyline and Cesar Chavez each a warning for a postgame fight between the teams on Nov. 30 that spilled into the stands.

The investigation into the fight remains open, said Phoenix Union High School district athletic director Dr. Zach Munoz during Monday’s monthly board meeting at the Phoenix headquarters of the AIA. Dr. Munoz, an AIA board member, Skyline athletic director Greg Schultz and Mesa District athletic director Dr. Steve Hogen attended Monday’s board meeting.

The Skyline players who were involved in the fight are currently serving three game suspensions, Schultz informed the board. Cesar Chavez’s players are also facing, at the minimum, three game suspensions with more punishments likely to come.

Dr. Munoz’s district is working with law enforcement to help it determine a course of action, including how parents who participated in the fight will also be held accountable. To help fill its schedule, the Phoenix Union High School District is also working with Tolleson High’s district to schedule a game between Tolleson and a Phoenix Union school.

After the fight, Skyline and Cesar Chavez forfeited scheduled regular season games against Tolleson.

“Based on review of the video and witness statements it’s clear the actions taken by several individuals do not reflect the values of Cesar Chavez and Phoenix Union High School District,” Dr. Munoz said. “We are committed to upholding the highest standards of our student athletes and our coaching staff, parents and all of our spectators. The safety and security of our students, staff and community is always at our highest priority. This behavior of this sort will not be tolerated.”

As part of their corrective action, the basketball teams of Cesar Chavez and Skyline will take character development courses, and each school will meet with parents to review codes of conduct.

The fight between Cesar Chavez and Skyline started while their players were shaking hands after the game.

Skyline’s basketball team will continue to shake hands after games with opponents.

“That will not cease,” Schultz said.

What Skyline will do different is have its coaches positioned between its players during the postgame handshake line, Schultz said.

AIA board members and David Hines, the AIA’s executive director, commended the Mesa and Phoenix Districts for working together and the swift actions they took after the fight. Both programs turned in violation reports after their initial investigations.

A warning is the second most severe punishment the AIA board can hand. It places a school in jeopardy of being put on probation if another violation of any rule or regulation is committed.

A school will not be eligible for the Overall Excellence Award the AIA awards during a warning period.

Executive director report

The AIA will recommend to allow the Open Division football tournament to continue, said Hines during his monthly report to the board.

“Our first Open championship was everything we hoped it would be,” Hines said. “It was a great game and well attended.”

Competitive games during the postseason was the goal of the AIA’s football advisory committee when it successfully lobbied for the Open to be implemented.

Competitive games are what fans got during the final playoff games. In January, the board will vote on whether to allow the Open to remain.

The next step in Arizona’s changing football landscape will happen on Wednesday, when the football advisory committee will meet to assign conferences to each football program. A new reclassification process is in place just for football for the next two-year scheduling block.

How a program performed in its most recent three seasons and a standard deviation rating will determine a program’s conference placement. The 2019 season will weigh more compared to how they did two and three years ago.

The AIA is expecting 16-18 schools to switch conferences. Schools can appeal their initial placement.

How teams schedule their games also will change. To make regular season games more competitive, each conference will be divided into three tiers.

The upper tier teams, the ones with successful campaigns the last three years, will not be allowed to schedule games against the bottom tiered teams. Cross conference scheduling will continue, Hines said.

The new football scheduling process will begin in February.

During his report, Hines also thanked Willow Canyon and Coronado High and its leaders for hosting and helping run the 4A and 2A championship games, respectively. He also thanked AIA football tournament coordinator Dan Nero and all tournament staff members for their efforts during the 2019 football championship season.

Hines also introduced the AIA’s new unified sports coordinator, Katie DeVenuto. The AIA has become a national Special Olympics leader at the high school level, DeVenuto said.

The AIA is one of the firsts associations to incorporate unified sports into its bylaws. State championships are awarded in unified sports.

Hines also informed the board that AIA sports administrator Dean Visser will meet with the wrestling advisory committee to work on recommendations for section placement, as requested by the board, and East Fork Lutheran has withdrawn its full membership request.

Discussion/action item

The board unanimously voted to clarify the player ID college camps portion of the non-school participation rule. This is an effort to see which camps are legit.

The bylaw deals with tryouts and workouts. In the past, some of the camps were not attended by college coaches.

The clarification will state that college coaches must be present at these camps in order for students to participate in them.

--The board wants an exception to the ejection rule to be voted on by the AIA’s legislative council in March.

Ejections continue to rise, and the AIA wants to do something to combat the issue. The exception the AIA is seeking to add is to eject a player two or three games, depending on the sport they play, for punching, fighting and or for directing profanity at an official, coach or player from an opposing team.

An appeal process for athletes who are ejected under this exception will be in place if this exception is adopted. Of the 211 ejections during this fall season, 111 of them were for fighting and punching, Hines said.

AIA Pink Whistle project

The AIA gave a check for $5,595 dollars to representatives of the American Cancer Society during Monday’s board meeting.

The AIA’s department of officials sold 850 pink whistles and donated money to the American Cancer Society. It will continue to sell the whistles in January to raise money for a good cause.

“It’s a worthy cause and appreciate that we can do this for you guys,” Hines said.

New school membership updates

The AIA approved San Tan Charter (2A) and Mica Mountain High School (4A) to become full AIA members during the 2020-21 school year.

The AIA’s board also recommended that 2A Sequoia Pathway and 3A Adrade Polytech stay on track for AIA membership. The AIA wants to receive more information from Sequoia Charter School and Green Fields Country Day School before determining their membership requests.

The AIA is planning to do a site visit to Nadaburg High School in Wickenburg, a school also requesting to become an AIA member.

Agenda items approved

The following agenda items were approved:

Two AIA lifetime passes.

• Thirty-one contest and or programs cancellation requests.
• The student eligibility appeal (paper review) and or request for hardship eligibility (legal guardian) requests from Safford and Carl Hayden.
• Additional game requests from six schools.
• Higley’s request to allow football coach Eddy Zubey to coach in the Under Armour All-American game in Orlando on Jan. 2.
• Centennial’s request to host an additional wrestling tournament.
• Three complimentary pass replacements.
• The swimming appeal division placements of Moon Valley (D-II to D-III), Independence (D-I to D-II) and Cortez (D-II to D-III).
• The track and field/cross country division appeal placements of Northwest Christian (D-III to D-IV), Pusch Ridge Christian Academy (D-III to D-IV), Valley Christian (D-III to D-IV).
• The tennis appeal division placement of Independence (D-I to D-II).

School violations

Warning for the activities program of San Luis. Student athletes were not cleared (no PPE on file) by the school’s athletic office to participate in practices.

Warning for the boys basketball program of McClintock. The head coach allowed an athlete to practice without being cleared by the athletics office.

Warning for the girls soccer program of San Miguel. A player who was not on the roster and hadn’t submitted the required paperwork to play was allowed to practice for 45 minutes.