NCHSAA board punts again on shot clock, girls’ flag football issues
There will be no decisions coming from the N.C. High School Athletic Association this week on two of its highest-profile issues — a shot clock in basketball, and the sanctioning of girls’ flag football as an official sport.
But at least some board members have signaled they’re ready for some kind of decision on the two questions.
“This keeps coming up,” Mark Garrett, superintendent of the Henderson County Schools and an NCHSAA board member, said Monday about the shot clock proposal. “I’d like to make a decision on it.”
No decision will be coming Tuesday, when the board closes its annual fall meeting and votes on several other issues. But Garrett and others on the board signaled Monday that they want a decision soon — possibly at the spring meeting in May.
Meanwhile, the same questions that have slowed progress on getting flag football sanctioned were in evidence again Monday at the board meeting. Members wondered whether the official season should be in the autumn or the spring, and whether there was support from enough schools to add girls’ flag football to the NCHSAA’s list of sports.
In the case of flag football, board members said they would make some sort of decision at the spring meeting — even if it’s just to conduct a trial state championship in the 2026-27 academic year.
The shot clock proposal for basketball has bounced around board meetings for a couple of years now.
The NCHSAA’s sports committee, headed by Larry Williford, athletic director at Farmville Central High, studied a proposal to begin using a 35-second shot clock on an experimental basis in the 2026-27 basketball season. The clock would be used in scrimmages, regular-season tournaments, and special weekend “classic” events.
The National Federation of High Schools said 34 states are using the shot clock in some form.
As has been the case at recent NCHSAA board meetings, the concerns about the shot clock involve the cost of equipment and the training of game officials.
Williford said the issue will not come up for a vote by the board this time because committee members want to know how many schools already have the equipment or technology to install it, and how many referees are trained in use of the clock.
“I think we need more information,” he said, asking that the NCHSAA staff conduct a study on the cost and number of game officials trained to use the clock.
Garrett voiced concern over such a study.
“Using our staff’s time on an item that only a few people want? I think that’s a waste of resources,” he said.
But Williford said an informal survey of coaches showed about 50 percent of them supported the clock’s use.
“Then I would love to get the data and decide on this, one way or another,” Garrett said. “We need to make a decision and move on.”
There was no firm indication on when the study might be finished, but board members talked about revisiting the issue during the spring meeting in May.
Punting on flag football
It appears as if the delay in sanctioning this sport is due to uncertainty over when to conduct the season.
West Stokes High Principal Sam Jones, who heads the NCHSAA’s policy committee, released results of a survey that showed around 110 schools are fielding girls’ flag football teams. That is close to the NCHSAA requirement, which calls for 25 percent of the member schools to field teams for at least two straight years.
But the survey also showed big differences in when the sport is played. About 50 percent of the schools said girls’ flag football is a fall sport, with another 25 percent playing in the winter. The other 25 percent, which includes the 21 teams in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, play flag football in the spring.
NCHSAA board member Ericia Turner, who also is CMS athletic director, said she is willing to move the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ season to the spring.
“We will align with whatever the association decides,” Turner said. “If it is scheduled in the fall, we will make it work. I want to see flag football approved.”
Board member Jamie King, whose daughter is quarterback of her high school flag football team, said he wants to sanction the sport.
“The question is whether we can be ready by next fall,” said King, superintendent of the Sampson County Schools.
Jones suggested a possible compromise would be for the NCHSAA to conduct an invitational tournament next fall and crown an unofficial state champion. That would be the same approach the organization used several years ago when it began the sanctioning process for girls’ wrestling.
“Conducting an invitational would help us decide how much participation we’ll have,” Jones said.
Board member Dana Ayers, superintendent of Jackson County Schools, supported the invitational tournament idea, saying, “It might be nice to dip our toes for one year, to help us answer some questions.”
Either way, said board member Brian Tyson, superintendent of the Cabarrus County Schools, the NCHSAA needs to make a decision.
“We just keep kicking it down the road,” he said, of a decision on flag football. “If we wait until May, then we’d be talking about waiting another year.”
A decision on an invitational tournament next fall could be discussed again Tuesday, when the board closes the fall meeting by voting on a number of other issues.