GHYLA Board Meeting Minutes 12-11-2018

The Houstonian 6-8pm

first 40 minutes consisting of independent scheduling. 

Attendees:

• Atascocita – Kellie Stoddard, GHYLA 2U Rep
• Baytown – not present  
• Cy-Fair – Shelley Boyle, Ironmen President and GHYLA Coordinator
• Fort Bend – Ed Torriero, Program Director, David Hills – GHYLA 6U Rep
• Frank Black – Tim Weltin, Head Coach
• FYLAX – Carrie McDonald, Scheduler/Secretary
• Katy – Keith Mazy, Scheduler
• Kingwood – not present
• Klein – Chad Johnson, Youth AD, GHYLA President
• Langham Creek – Colin Speer, President, GHYLA Treasurer
• Magnolia – GL Van Dyne, Youth President, GHYLA 8U Rep
• Pearland – Chad Points, President, Chris Ruth, Scheduler/Coach
• Pershing – Chris Behan, AD
• Pin Oak – Huntley Kent, Head Coach
• Richmond – Brian Mangus, Scheduler, Chris Herrin, Asst. Coach, Sean Ray, Coach, William West, Coach
• Roberson – Ernest Webb, Head Coach, Cory Idlebird, Coach
• SBMSA – Brit Chapman, President
• TBAL – Jack Henderson, Coach
• The Woodlands – John, O’Rourke, President, GHYLA 4U Rep
• West Houston – not present
• TXLOA – Tim Bohdan, President

Do all D1 teams need to play D1 teams in North as well a D2? Question by the esteemed John O’Rourke.  Answer is Yes  -  want everyone to play everyone within their level and geographic conference. There will be weekly standings for all 4U-8U teams.

Mike Alsobrooks introduced - TXLOA VP and Assigner   

D2 tourney is April 27^th and Cy-Fair has agreed to host, but fields are $60/hour/field.    Would like to know if anyone else would like to host who has less expensive fields. Open for anyone else.

6U and 8U – D2 and total of 3 fields. 

Sunday, April 28^th  - D1 6U and 8U Championship games at Rice

Playoffs - Easter is April 20^th -  weekend off

• Pearland offered to host April 27^th - 
• Sienna offered to host April 27^th –
• HYLAX offered to host April 27^th –
• Quarterfinals - maybe on Sunday, April 14^th - 
•                Chad Muir – made proposal of quarterfinals on April 13^th

• Total 7U teams
  • HYLAX
  • Memorial
  • Woodlands
•  Proposal to have no 7U, only 8U D1 and 8U D2 -  Memorial will have two D2 teams
• All voted in favor of no 7^th grade division,
• Introduction of Huntley Kent for Pin Oak – present at the meeting.
• Baytown looks to be 6U D2 only
• SYSTEM to log games - cut and paste into template and loaded onto system.  Thru league athletics and goes into Arbiter communicates with one another. 
• Let the refs know of changes made in League Athletics FIRST and then goes into Arbiter.
•                Log ins created separately
•                No more extra five minutes on start times.
• January 22^nd -  ROSTERS DUE BY EVERYONE.   Addresses must be listed in roster
• Space City Shootout 19^th and 20^th - 
• Pearland winter games same weekend -  Jan 19^th –
• Discussion about boundaries -  and need to ensure we are following THSLL boundary guidelines
• Need to elect another secretary as Kay Amendola resigned.
• Jaime Meyers – nominated for Secretary
•                Election needs to occur within 30 days  
• Waiver language adopted by EC needs to be voted on.  The language was passed out to everyone.
• December 20^th final deadline to vote for the waiver language

** Waiver language passed out:

c.       Player Waivers – Applicable to BOTH D1 and D2 Rosters of GHYLA Teams.

All players must play for their appropriate GHYLA member team. Determination of the appropriate member team for players that attend a public school or private school which is not a GHYLA member club is based on where the player’s home address is located within the GHYLA approved boundaries. GHYLA boundaries have been developed with consideration of the Greater Houston area ISD zones.  Players that attend a private school that is also a GHYLA member club may elect to play for their school in lieu of their assigned boundary GHYLA member club. GHLYA boundaries can be located on the GHYLA website.  For compelling reasons only, a player may request a waiver from his zoned team to the closest geographic alternate team within the GHYLA organization, using a Google Map test. Players will not be allowed to simply pick and choose a team they desire, or want to play for, without geographic limitations.  For a waiver to be effective, the waiver must be submitted prior to Final Roster submission date of each season to GHYLA and have the initial approval of both of the organizations involved.  All waivers must then be submitted in writing to the GHYLA Secretary, and Final Approval will be determined by the Executive Committee.  Any waivers submitted after the submission of the final rosters to GHYLA are invalid and will not be considered.

Organizations have three (3) days to respond to waiver submittals.  A player, or member Organization, is permitted to appeal a waiver to the GHYLA Executive Committee, if the originally submitted waiver is not equally approved by both organizations, by submitting an appeal to the Secretary or President of the GHYLA.  Upon request for an appeal, the GHYLA will convene a review board, consisting of the Executive Committee.  The Executive Committee will determine the procedures for appeal review and will render a decision in a timely manner, to minimize any interference with the commencement of the season, and any roster deadlines required by these rules. For a waiver appeal to be considered approved, and thus effective, it must be ratified and approved by a two-thirds (2/3rds) majority vote of the Executive Committee. Any Final determination of the Executive Committee will be binding on the player and/or Organizations involved.  Once any player is granted a waiver for a particular season, from an Organization, that waivered-in Organization becomes the zoned Organization for such player for that particular season ONLY.   

Waivers must be submitted on an annual basis by every player requesting a waiver, for the Executive Committee to assess and determine if compelling reasons still persist.   Players will not be grandfathered in just because they have played for a member club of GHYLA that they were not zoned to in a prior season and this rule applies retroactively to all players beginning January 1, 2019.  No Club may carry more than four (4) waivered-in players, per season.  And no team within a club may have more than two waivered players.  Copies of all waivers submitted for each season will be kept in a binder designated “WAIVERS” by the Secretary of GHYLA as well as an online document repository and are available for review by any member team of GHYLA upon written request.  In addition, GHYLA member programs must include a copy of the approved waiver in the player’s game-day sideline binder. 

All GHYLA clubs are permitted a total of four (4) waivers per year for all of their respective D1 and D2 teams.  Furthermore, no more than two (2) waivered-in players are allowed on any particular team, per club (i.e. a GHYLA club is only allowed to have two (2) players playing on a D1 level 8U team for that year). However, these waivered-in limitation rules will not apply if a GHYLA Club that is closest to another particular GHYLA club cannot field a team at a specific divisional level and those players, out of necessity, need to be transferred, in order to play for the closest zoned GHYLA club.

Examples of compelling reasons would be:

1. If the GHYLA member club a player is zoned to, sets restrictive limits on the number of players it intends to field at a particular grade level, and said player is not allowed to register,
2. OR a member club of GHYLA does not have enough players at a particular grade level to field a team at that level. 

Any member team of GHYLA that has found to have violated this rule either by accepting a player not zoned to their program without the necessary waiver or by circumventing this rule on their own accord will thereby lose playoff eligibility for that season upon which the violation occurs and any game that non-waivered player(s) participates in will be forfeited to the opposing team in 1-0 victory.