PEORIA — There will be room for debate, and an opportunity to go head over heels for boys gymnastics somewhere in Illinois during the 2023-24 season.
Just not in the IHSA state series lineup going forward.
The Illinois High School Association board recently voted to discontinue state series in boys gymnastics and debate, marking the first sports to be dropped from the championship finals lineup in 41 years.
Illinois high schools can still have debate teams and boys gymnastic teams. But they’ll have to create an independent championship tournament outside the IHSA system.
“It was solely based on participation,” IHSA executive director Craig Anderson said. “There were only (40) boys gymnastics teams remaining. Debate was down to (39) teams. We have 817 member schools in the state.
“It’s been a long time since we had to remove a sport. It’s not something I or our board of directors take lightly. We’ve tried to be patient.”
Girls archery and girls field hockey were the last IHSA state series to be discontinued due to low participation, dropped in 1980 and 1982, respectively.
“A sport and activity are significant to those who participate,” Anderson said. “It’s difficult to make the decision. But I truly believe that many schools will continue to offer (boys gymnastics, debate).
“They can still have a state final, just not under IHSA jurisdiction. We’ve seen that play out with field hockey and ice hockey.”
More:Why the IHSA wants to alter its basketball state finals schedule
Why it had to happen
The board was beholden to IHSA Policy 14, which states that a sport or activity state series tournament will no longer be held when the “state series has less than seven percent (7%) of member schools entering a team.”
Boys gymnastics held at 50 teams participating from 2000-2021, but slipped to 46 in 2022 and 40 in 2023, a 4.8% school participation level statewide.
Debate had 49 schools competing during a run of 13 years, then crashed to 39 in 2021-22.
For the IHSA, it’s a matter of limited resources to spread around administration of all of its state series. Sports with low participation still cost the same investment in personnel and time, but don’t generate much revenue for host venues, communities or the IHSA.
“Boys gymnastics and debate, for some reason, took a significant dip in participation coming out of the pandemic,” Anderson said. “Honestly, all of our sports took a hit in participation from the pandemic.”
The first IHSA Debate State Finals were staged in 1941, while the inaugural boys gymnastics State Finals debuted in 1951-52.
Gymnastics peaked at 79 teams in 1977, and produced a two-time state champion in Bart Conner, a Niles West product who went on to win two Olympic gold medals.
Make way for flag football
What is on the horizon?
Anderson says he expects the IHSA will soon be conducting state series in high school girls flag football and 8-man football.
“Girls flag football has the most growth of any of our sports right now,” said Anderson, noting there aren’t any teams yet in the Peoria area and that so far most of the participation is Chicago-area based. “This fall there could be over 100 schools competing. That’s coming on the horizon.
“It started with the NFL promoting it.”
The NFL’s program, NFL FLAG, was carried to the Chicago Public Schools by the Chicago Bears. The sport is a pathway to girls who want to play a sport in college.
“The Bears had a strong initiative in working with Chicago public schools,” Anderson said. ” It caught on there and expanded to suburban areas.”
More:Here are the top times, distances for Peoria-area high school track and field in 2023
According to NFL FLAG, youth participation in sports has declined 13% over the last decade, but flag football has become one the fastest growing youth sports in the country. The number of kids aged 6-12 playing has increased by 38%, to more than 1.5 million, since 2015. And NFL FLAG is leading the way as the largest flag football league in the U.S., with more than 1,600 leagues in 50 states.
“Eight-man football is growing rapidly, too,” Anderson said. “And flag football, schools like it because it’s belts and footballs, generally inexpensive and large numbers of kids can play.
“You just don’t know what’s going to happen as you try to track these things. Would I ever imagine conducting a state championship in Esports? No way.
“But we are, it’s had significant growth and we’ve done it two years now.”
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
