There's a major change on the way for High School Athletics in the State of Iowa.

Our neighboring state to the East is about to have a notable change in who can participate in High School athletic events.

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The State Board of Education on Iowa has approved a rule that would allow eighth-graders to compete at the Iowa high school sports levels in all sports. However, the decision is up to the discretion of each high school.
“So local interscholastic athletics locally controlled, local policies about which sports to offer, open rosters versus competition, coaching decisions,” State Board of Education attorney Thomas Mayes said (thanks to Radio Iowa for the quotes). “Nothing in this bill displaces any of those.”
The ruling goes into effect on August 1 and also states that athletes cannot play on both junior high and high school teams at the same time. He also hopes that each school will take into heavy consideration the nature of the sport and the student before making the decision to play an eighth-grader at the high school level.

For those already familiar, Iowa holds their Softball and Baseball seasons in the Summer, which already allows for the participation of 8th graders.

This new ruling will allow 8th graders in all sports and will also provide a boost to many programs in the state that may be suffering from lack of participation.

For the latest on all things Iowa High School Athletics, visit the Association site or Girls Union site.

Source: SI.com