By-Laws

Membership:

Darrow, Marvelwood, New York Military, Oakwood Friends, Poughkeepsie Day, Storm King, and Wooster.

Any school that is a member of the New England Prep School Athletic Council can apply for membership. Applications should be submitted to the League President prior to the Fall Meeting. All new members will be on probation their first year and then become a full member upon being voted in by the League including our Code of Conduct and must meet our dues and attendance requirements.

Dues:

Annual dues are $40 per team in the league and a $70 misc. fee.

Attendance:

Three seasonal meetings are held in September, December and April. While attendance is required at these meetings. If a member misses two meetings in one year a letter of probation will be sent to the school. This will mean that your school may not participate in the league tournament play the following year.

Officers:

The Officers shall consist of a President / Treasurer; Vice President: and Secretary. Every Odd year at the Spring meeting a nomination process for each position shall take place.

Participation:

An athlete is expected to participate in only one sport at one level on any given day. Exceptions should be cleared in advance with the opposing Athletic Director. An athlete may not participate simultaneously on more than one school team during a single season.

Eligibility:

To be eligible for participation in an athletic program, the student must be enrolled full-time in that school and meet all eligibility guidelines as outlined on page 16 in the NEPSAC directory.

Scouting:

Although verbal contact between schools is allowed, scouting (including viewing a contest or film) of future opponents without the permission of all the Athletic Directors involved is prohibited.

Officials:

All schools must use the member boards with which they have contracts for officials. Schools should go to other boards only when it has been determined service can not be provided by the above.

Scheduling:

Rules guiding “Pegging” dates are as follows:

Fall: Start at the second Saturday in November and then, count backwards.
Winter: Start at the first Saturday in December and then, count forward. Start at the last Saturday in January, first count backward and then, count forward through the fourth Saturday in February.
Spring: Start at the fourth Saturday in May and then, count backward.

Teams need to honor the dates of scheduled games. Teams are not permitted to cancel non-HVAL games in order to play a make-up HVAL game, unless the non-HVAL game can be reschedule to another date.

Uniforms:

Colors are to be worn at home and white is to be worn on the road.

Probation:

Any member that is on probation WILL NOT be allowed to participate in the playoffs.

Sportsmanship:

Sportsmanship is very important to the members of the Hudson Valley Athletic League.

When teams are winning by 20 points in basketball we expect that you are not pressing,

When your team is up by 30 late in the game we expect that you are playing your lower

Level players.

At the end of each year each school will vote on the other schools on their sportsmanship

By giving them a value of 1 – 10, with 10 being the best (each school could have the

same number). This will be counted by the league president and the highest score(s) will

win the Sportsmanship Award for that school year.

Rescheduling Policy:

When a game is postponed the two AD’s should get together and find an open date.

When this is done the League President is called with the new date. When looking

For a new date you should keep in mind that no school should play more than three

Games in a week unless they decide to play a fouth, that will be the AD’s call.

Tournament Play:

For the league playoffs you should keep in mind that if there is less than 8 schools

We will have one tournament.

If 7 schools – 1 bye, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5
If 6 schools – 1 and 2 bye, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5
If 5 schools – 4 vs 5, 1 vs 4/5, 2 vs 3
If 4 schools – 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3

Postponement of a playoff game will be made up the next day (ie: Tuesday – Wednesday, Wednesday – Thursday.)

Tie-breaking system:

Head to Head
League standings from the top down
Common Non-League opponent
Coin Toss by the League President (unless his/her school is involved in the tie)

General:

The Athletic Directors are responsible for making the entire community at their schools aware of NEPSAC Code of Ethics on an annually basis.

It is imperative that Athletic Directors notify their coaching staff of important decisions reached during Athletic Directors meetings so that we are all playing with the same set of rules.

Expulsion Rule:

Players or Coaches who are ejected from interscholastic games for “unsportsmanlike conduct” or other flagrant behavior will forfeit their eligibility to play or coach in the next regularly scheduled interscholastic game or tournament game played in that sport. You must call the League President about the player and/or coach. We also encourage a conversation between Athletic Director, Coach and disqualified offender.

Rules of Sports (Boys and Girls):

Baseball:

Federation rules with the following exceptions:

The length of game is 7 innings
Slide rule – must slide at every base
Members of the coaching staff may coach at either first and/or third base
Should be umpired by two umpires.
Payers in the starting line-up (including pitchers) can be withdrawn and returned to the game one time. If a starter returns to the game he must bat in the original position in the batting order. A non-starter may enter the game only once. Any replacement for the pitcher on the mound must pitch to at least one batter – until the batter advances to first base, is put out, or the third out is made. Pitchers can be shifted to another position in the field and back to the mound only once during the game.
Mercy rule is 10 runs.

Basketball (Boys):

Federation rules with no exceptions.

Basketball (Girls):

Federation rules with exceptions:

No 10-second clock for backcourt.
A visible 30-second clock required.

Cross Country:

Cross Country is governed by the New England Prep School Track Association / Federation.
To be eligible for the HVAL Championship Race a school must participate in two-thirds of the league invitational races during the season.

Golf:

USGA rules with the following exceptions:

Golf matches will be medal play instead of match play.
Teams will carry 6 people.
Matches will be 9 holes.
The 5 low scores out of 6 will be totaled and the winner is the low score. In case of a tie: first count the 6^th person’s score, then use low 4 out of 6 if the match is still tied.
Girl’s on Boy’s team may play from red tees.

Lacrosse (Boys):