One of the hot topics on the agenda for the 2018 Winter Season meeting of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association Board of Control (NIAA) was fan behavior. The regularly scheduled quarterly meeting was held at the Nugget Casino in Sparks, on Dec. 10-11.
Tim Connors (Lowry High School Athletic Administrator) was one of a handful of administrators and coaches that attended the meeting
“Ray (Parks, LHS Principal), Dr. Dave Jensen (Humboldt County School District Superintendent), Ed (Partee, LHS girls varsity soccer coach) and I went to the meeting," Connors said. "Dr. Jensen spoke very eloquently on behalf of the school districts from across the state of Nevada that something needs to be done when something like this happens and a district does not follow through with a tough enough, a stiff enough ban; the NIAA should step in and do something about it.”
The Lowry coach was involved in an altercation with an Incline Village fan at an away game held on Sept. 21.
Partee spoke on his own behalf before the board about the situation that occurred and what he has gone through as a coach because of this incident.
The current NIAA Nevada Administrative Code (NAC) covers the standard of conduct in regard to pupils, coaches, administrators, faculty members and sports officials, but does not mention spectators.
“The NIAA office is working in conjunction with the Washoe County School District’s Athletic and Activities and Student Services Office regarding this incident," said NIAA co-assistant director Donnie Nelson. "There could be some other action taken at some point down the road.”
The proposal that was put forward according to the agenda listed for the meeting on niaa.com was as follows.
NAC 386.684 CONDUCT OF PARTICIPANTS AND SPECTATORS: RESPONSIBILITY OF SCHOOL; AUTHORITY OF SPORTS OFFICIAL. (NRS 386.430)
1. A school is responsible for the conduct of each coach, athlete, pupil and spectator before, during and after each game, contest or meet in which the school participates.
2. If a coach, athlete, pupil or spectator specified in subsection 1 engages in conduct that interrupts or adversely affects the manner in which the game, contest or meet is conducted, the sports official assigned to the game, contest or meet may:
a. Issue a warning to the coach, athlete, pupil or spectator to refrain from engaging in that conduct; or
b. Regardless of whether the sports official issues a warning pursuant to paragraph (a), order the offending school to forfeit the game, contest or meet.
(Added to NAC by Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association by
R206-03, effective 11-2-2004)
“I think the biggest thing is that there has not been a precedent set for a case like this involving spectators,” Connors said.. “It is up to the individual districts to sanction their teams and their fans. Our point was that since the NIAA is the sanctioning board, they have the power to ban spectators that act egregiously.”
When asked about updating the regulations, Nelson said, “We do not currently have any authority in our handbook to govern over fan conduct.
The direction that the board put to the NIAA office staff was to start the development of a regulation that would include fan behavior and actions into our NAC; our by-laws and rules and regulations that govern our Association. They are state statutes and the process of developing something and passing through the legislative council bureau will take some time, but I expect that it will be sooner rather than later. We should have something written up for a first review at our quarterly spring meeting in March.”
The public is allowed to speak on any of the items on the agenda at the end of each meeting.
“Most of our NIAA regulations are reactionary, you can’t foresee everything that could happen in the world of high school sports," Nelson added. "We realize that we need to get something in place regarding this issue, and we are going to react to it.”
