Prep Iowa Sports- The Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) had their Board of Control meeting this past weekend and made some changes to future sports schedules.
Looking ahead to the 2025-26 school year, the IHSAA and Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) have agreed to move the boys’ golf and girls’ tennis seasons from the spring to the fall to help even out the crowded spring sport season.
“Our member schools have been asking for ways to relieve the crowded spring sports seasons for years” IGHSAU executive director Erin Gerlich said. “The new changes provide relief in an already busy spring, and an opportunity for the IGHSAU and IHSAA to enhance the state tournament experiences for tennis and golf.”
Consequently, boys’ golf for Classes 3A, 2A, and 1A and girls’ tennis will compete in the spring for 2024-25 and the fall season for 2025-26, while boys’ golf for Class 4A will continue golfing in the fall.
The new breakdown for sport seasons in 2025-26:
Fall: Boys and Girls Cross Country, Football, Volleyball, Girls Swimming, Girls Tennis, and Boys Golf
Winter: Boys and Girls Basketball, Boys and Girls Bowling, Boys and Girls Wrestling, and Boys Swimming
Spring: Boys and Girls Soccer, Boys Tennis, Boys and Girls Track and Field, and Girls Golf
Summer: Baseball and Softball
Some other items that were approved and discussed include:
Basketball has eliminated the closely guarded “five seconds” rule for the upcoming winter season in conjunction with the NFHS rules for states using shot clocks. Additionally, substate final games for Classes 3A and 4A will be hosted by the higher-seeded teams.
The individual bowling tournament will bowl out to eighth place, similar to the team tournament. There’s also discussion about splitting the boys’ and girls’ bowling season.
There’s been a change to golf’s postseason. There will be no regard to home course in qualification for Classes 3A, 2A, and 1A and will now just be the top three teams to advance for each round.
Tennis scoring for the postseason will become uniform with singles and doubles along with team tournaments now featuring ad scoring, best two out of three sets, with a 10-point super tiebreaker to be used instead of a complete third set. The consolation rounds and coed state tournament will remain no-ad scoring.