MIDVALE—High schools around the state have started their school years and with that the Utah High School Activities Association will be sanctioning new sports and changing rules that will be implemented this season and next. 

With over 160 schools and 100,000 students under the UHSAA umbrella, the organization plans on another successful year of young student athletes against each other starting this fall.

This will be the first school year of competitive cheerleading starting in late January 2023 in Utah, as well as in the spring of 2024, boys volleyball will be a sanctioned high school sport by the UHSAA. 

Oglesby said that with boys volleyball in particular, it was a decision by their board members whether or not to sanction the sport, and the process took years to come up with a solution.

“Our board took many years to look at the information and viability of the sport,” Oglesby said. “There were a lot of discussions including superintendents, principals of schools and our board members about gym spaces, funding and transportation. We gathered the information and made a decision as we will be having our first state championship in boys volleyball in 2024.”

The introduction of a shot clock this year in Utah High School girls and boys basketball has been deemed as a “game-changer” and it will change the way youthful players conduct decisions when they are on the court.

The reason why shot clocks weren’t in use at games last season was because, according to Oglesby, the National Federation of State High School Associations didn’t allow states to use a shot clock in competitions originally. 

“In state competitions, the NFHS didn’t allow the use of a shot clock before this school year,” Oglesby said. “Moving forward, they have allowed each state to decide whether they wanted to use the shot clock or not in state competitions. Utah is a basketball state, and after having discussions with principals, superintendents and board members, the decision was made to implement the shot clock to raise the competitive level in our state.”

Realignment of schools is a topic that is discussed frequently within the UHSAA as to where to classify schools from 1A to 6A, depending on the number of students at a school to try to create an equal playing field. 

“The goal of realignment is to group schools together with relatively the same size as others and put them together into classifications.” Oglesby said. “School population and competitiveness are the part of the process that is really designed to set up schools into those classifications, and giving the schools a chance to win a state championship.”

Oglesby said that Utah has a high caliber of dominance and maintains a high skill level in sports like football, volleyball and cross country. The fall semester every year brings the same excitement back to high schools and he can’t wait for the season to get started. 

“Our football programs in Utah have been very competitive and the caliber of talent is outstanding,” Oglesby said. “We are nationally recognized as one of the best states in cross country due to the elevation and the prolific athletes that high schools produce. The volleyball talent is exceptional as well. The fall sports lineup has some of our best student-athletes and there is always just an excitement at the beginning of the year with sports helping with that.”λ