Staff Report

BATON ROUGE — Members of the newly-created Senate Select Committee on High School Interscholastic Athletics will hold their first meeting March 5 at 9:30 a.m. in the John J. Hainkel Briefing Room at the State Capitol to learn more about the recent decision by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association to separate high school football playoffs into select/non-select categories.

In the two-tiered measure, public and private schools with select admissions will be place in one group, while non-select admissions public schools will be placed in another.

As Senator Page Cortez (R-Lafayette), chairman of the new select committee, explained, “Legislators across the state are getting lots of questions from parents and student-athletes regarding the new football playoff system. There are questions about how the system will be implemented and how they and their school programs might be impacted. Through the Senate Select Committee on Interscholastic Athletics, we hope to get the answers we need to be able to respond to questions from our constituents and to maintain an on-going dialogue with the Louisiana High School Athletic Association about the playoff system and other issues.”

In addition to Cortez, the members of the Senate Select Committee on High School Interscholastic Athletics are Sen. Conrad Appel (R-Metairie), who will serve as vice-chairman; Sen. Sharon Weston Broome (D-Baton Rouge); Sen. Dan Claitor (R-Baton Rouge); Sen. Ronnie Johns (R-Lake Charles), Sen. Barrow Peacock (R-Bossier City) and Sen. Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe).

The select committee will meet jointly with the Sub-committee on High School Interscholastic Athletics of the House Committee on Education, whose member-ship has not been finalized yet.

The Louisiana High School Athletic Association approved the new high school football playoff system, known as Proposition 18, at the association’s annual convention in late January.