The referendum will happen.

The IHSAA announced Monday that the required 20 signatures from each of the five districts in the state of Indiana were gathered in time to send the recent decision by the IHSAA to go to class sports to a referendum of the principals of the schools in the state.

A simple majority of the principals (193) is all that is needed to overturn the multiple class decision. The referendum will be done by mail in early September. It has not been determined whether the vote will be made public. But the decision on the how and when of the vote will be made Aug. 23 by the IHSAA board of directors.

Back on April 29, the IHSAA board voted to adopt a multiple-class format for up to four classes starting with the 1997-98 school year. The sports with four classes would be baseball, boys' and girls' basketball and volleyball. Three classes would be made for softball and boys' and girls' soccer would remain one class until 50 percent of the IHSAA membership sponsored a team.

The next step, according to Warsaw High School principal Paul Crousore, is for more dialogue and education to occur to get the word out to the people of the communities who can influence the principals' decisions.

"I would hope the referendum would bring out dialogue with the community, the coaching staff and representatives of the school family, and then maybe if there is consistency among the districts, it would clean it up," he said. "Right now, there is just a lot of rumors and innuendo.

"I would hope there would be more dialogue on how it would affect each of our schools," he said. "Right now we have talked about it in theory, but haven't seen a proposal. There are some proposals out there, but nothing concrete you could point to."

Crousore was part of a group that spearheaded the campaign to get the required 20 signatures in District 2 to bring the class sports issue to the referendum. It wasn't any easy task to get to the principals and ask for their signatures. The letters were sent out in May with plenty of distractions and other issues.

"Getting the required number of signatures wasn't difficult, but it was finding everybody at home that was tough," Crousore said. "For most principals, the matter of class athletics didn't rank high on their list of priorities at that time."

With the help of Warsaw boys' basketball coach Al Rhodes and Penn boys' coach Pete Smith, a former Warsaw assistant, 24 signatures were gathered from the district.

Crousore said the dialogue that would occur between now and the referendum in September would include the principals really finding out what the issue is that is on the table and how it would affect the school as well as the community. Something that Crousore feels some principals did not take the time to find out when discussing the matter back in April, when the Executive Committee voted 12-5 to go to class sports.

"There are some principals that have been at schools in Illinois, and they went on the concept that since it was good for Illinois why wouldn't it be good here," he said. "They have not necessarily taken a good look at what our the feelings of the coaches or the community, and how will it affect a regular season schedule in terms of scheduling and finances.

"I think their will be a effort to educate the majority of the population in the state," he said. "And we could give them the idea of why are we resisting class athletes. When ever you change something, you give up something, and is what we give up to get class athletics, do we understand what we are giving up. Or more importantly, do we understand what we will gain. We need to clarify from the people who support it. Philosophically, they say it is more of a chance for more students to be recognized, and I am not sure I agree with that."

Patience, Crousore said, is one of the big keys in the whole class sports issue. He said that if a clear idea is brought up through the conversations over the next couple months and the referendum proves the majority of the state wants class sports, then so be it and that the energy should then be directed to making that a reality.

"I am not anxious," Crousore said. "I think the referendum vote and following this through will make the IHSAA stronger because it will demonstrate clearly that the IHSAA is listening, and as unit we can come out with a win-win situation. It may not be a one-class system, but it could be a combination that would satisfy the majority." [[In-content Ad]]