Connecticut Association of Schools

Connecticut Association of Schools

Abbreviation	CIAC
Formation	1921
Legal status	Association
Purpose	Athletic/Educational
Headquarters	30 Realty Dr. Cheshire, CT 06410
Region served	Connecticut
Membership	1,100+ schools
Official language	English
Executive Director	Michael Savage
Affiliations	National Federation of State High School Associations
Staff	18
Website	casciac.org
Remarks	(203) 250-1111

The Connecticut Association of Schools and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) is the governing body for secondary school athletics and other interscholastic competition in the state of Connecticut.

History

The CIAC was founded in 1921 by several of the state's high school principals. Prior to the organization, secondary school athletics were largely unregulated, and abuse of student-athletes was fairly common. The goal of the new organization was to protect student-athletes and enforce rules for athletic competition between the state's secondary schools.

In 1953, the Connecticut Association of Secondary Schools and the CIAC merged to form the CAS-CIAC, an organization designed to support all areas of interscholastic activities.

The CIAC has enjoyed tremendous growth since its founding in 1921. Today, 179 secondary schools are members, in addition to 143 members in the middle school level.

Structure

The government of the CIAC consists the Board of Control, which contains 5 officers, 2 representatives from each of the 3 classes, 3 members of the eligibility committee, and one assistant principal.

Any public or private school with Connecticut Board of Education approval may become a member. Member schools may play regular season contests with other member schools, and in addition may enter state tournaments in the 27 CIAC managed sports. Sports under CIAC oversight are organized into three seasons: fall, winter, and spring.

At the conclusion of each season, the CAS hosts a wide array of tournaments for each sport. Every qualified school is divided into classes, based on size of school, and then play single elimination. Some sports however, like cross country, track and golf, have only one tournament day for each class size. Golf, for example, has four men's classes and one women's class that each play at a separate location around the state. The host courses for the tournament are Blue Fox Run, Fairview Farms, Timberlin and Crestbrook Park Golf Course.

Each school is placed into a class based on its population. The classes are S, M, L, and LL. Outdoor track and cross country have a different class system which is S, SS, M, MM, L, and LL because of the high number of participating schools in this sport. The smallest school populations are S going to the largest school populations that are LL. Teams within a school can be different classes because a team can move up to a higher class if CIAC deems the team too strong for their class. Each school is also in a conference which is based on region, except for technical high schools. Teams within conferences may be in different classes but they all have similar populations which leads to similar skill levels. The CIAC conferences are the Berkshire League, Capital Region Athletic League, Central Connecticut Conference (CCC), Connecticut Technical Conference (CTC), Eastern Connecticut Conference (ECC), Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference (FCIAC), North Central Connecticut Conference (NCCC), Naugatuck Valley League (NVL), Southern Connecticut Conference (SCC), Shoreline Conference, and the South West Conference (SWC).

Reigning Champions

*Denotes co-champions. CIAC uses co-champions for conference and class finals because a suicide after a penalty shoot out in a CIAC tournament.

Sports offered

See also

• List of high schools in Connecticut for a table that can sort high schools and sports leagues
• FCIAC, Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference
• Naugatuck Valley League

References

• The CIAC Story. Retrieved 2006-04-30.
• "Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Handbook 2005-2006." CAS-CIAC. 2005. Connecticut Association of Schools - Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference.

External links

• Official website