South Carolina lawmakers may alter how high school sports are managed

South Carolina lawmakers are discussing big potential changes surrounding equality and fairness in high school athletics.

The state House Education and Public Works Ad Hoc Committee on high school athletics met for the first time Monday to discuss several topics, including the hot topic of competitive balance and fair play — but also how sports should be managed in an era when education options are evolving.

A recent story from TheState.com detailed the potential changes to the South Carolina High School League. Below is an excerpt from TheState.com’s story.

“We’ve got to restructure. I hope everybody’s at the table to do that,” state Rep. Shannon Erickson, chairwoman of the House Education and Public Works Committee, told reporters after Monday’s meeting. League commissioner Jerome Singleton attended the meeting via Zoom and took questions from Erickson and other committee members.

The committee was formed in May, and Monday was a precursor to upcoming listening sessions “to hear from the public about the current status of high school sports and how governance can be improved to better meet the needs of students and their families.”

Six bills have been filed in the Legislature in the past year regarding high school athletics, including one by Erickson. She proposed bill H. 4388, which would move the governing body of high school athletics from the current High School League to a “division of interscholastic athletics” as part of the state Department of Education.

“It is a very large issue,” Erickson said. “You don’t have this many bills filled by this many people. They have come to me every week of session asking for my assurance that this committee was going to take place.”

Other proposed bills deal with the competitive balance issue, another hot topic within the SCHSL. Private and public charter school league members have dominated the state’s Class A and 2A levels of late, winning the majority of the state championships over the past five years.

One bill would have private and charter schools play up one level in classification, while another would have them going up two classifications. Another bill would force private and charter schools to have their own playoffs.

To read the full story from TheState.com, click here.