Prep notebook: NCHSAA board will meet this week on postseason play and more

The N.C. High School Athletic Association board of directors will discuss a number of items at the winter meetings, which will begin Wednesday. The board will take action on the items Thursday.

There is no hot-button issue.

The board will discuss whether to allow teams to play in national postseason events after the state championships. Charlotte’s Myers Park High contested the NCHSAA’s rule prohibiting any such games last season. Myers Park’s girls’ basketball team had been invited to a national tournament on the condition it won the NCHSAA title, but the school could not accept.

The board has several proposals from its members on changing the postseason formats. One proposal is to change playoff seeding in some sports to using MaxPreps’ computer rankings instead of overall records and conference finishes. Basketball coaches are proposing to change its format as well.

With so many proposals, the board likely will table some and seek more input from the athletics directors association.

Football and basketball coaches are seeking changes to the skill development period. Football, which first began using the 10-day skill development period last year, is hoping for more flexibility to pick which 10 days to use. Schools were limited to the 10 days leading up to exams, but that did not work for every school, depending on its calendar.

Basketball coaches hope to increase the number of players allowed in its skill development from four to eight. The current rule is one less than a team, so 10 in soccer, eight in baseball and so on.

It will be the first board meeting since Que Tucker became interim commissioner over the summer.

1,000-point club: Neuse Charter’s Jimmy Sanders III and Durham School of the Arts’ Markez Melvin each topped the 1,000-point mark. Sanders was recognized by his school last month, and Melvin will be recognized Dec. 15 against Southern Vance.

Shytle to play in All-American game: Heritage senior Logan Shytle has one more boys’ soccer game to play after all. Shytle will play in the fifth annual High School All-American game at 2 p.m. Saturday at Cardinal Gibbons.

Shytle had 41 goals and 13 assists en route to winning N.C. Soccer Coaches Association Player of the Year honors.

The third annual girls’ match, which will feature no N.C. players, will be at 4 p.m.

Cary-Apex rivalry heats up: Cary will visit Apex on Friday in a Southwest Wake Athletic Conference 4A boys’ basketball showdown. Cary’s Cory Gensler (uncommitted) and Apex’s Ian Boyd (George Mason) are two of the top seniors in the state. Boyd was most valuable player of the 2014 state championship game, but Gensler edged him for conference player of the year honor last season.

Cary is 4-0 entering the week and No. 2 in the N&O area rankings. Apex is 1-2 (losses to Nos. 1 Millbrook and 4 Broughton) is 12th.

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Prep notebook: NCHSAA board will meet this week on postseason play and more."