Discussion: High school orienteering

Does anybody know if orienteering is formally recognized by any state high school athletic association in the USA?

It is not in Washington state. I remember that about 3 years ago, the CascadeOC board discussed getting our Washington Interscholastic Orienteering League (WIOL) into the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA).

We looked into the requirements, and If I remember correctly, I think what held us up is that we don't have enough competition venues spread across the entire state, or something like that.

Not in NY.

Not in MA.

Are you seeking such recognition in OH, IN and/or KY?

Before seeking any such recognition, I would find out from people associated with minor sports that have such recognition how they feel about the state association. There are enough problems with track and field in AL caused by the association that I'm glad that we have absolutely no recognition of orienteering here.

At this point, I am pretty much just looking for information.

I agree with Dabond and will add a little more of my own comments (partly from having helped coach cross country, a state recognized sport). It seems like getting recognized would be a very time-consuming process, and the level of oversight/regulation which would come with recognition might make it a lot harder for our relatively informal clubs and school leagues to continue what they do. In the states I have checked, generally the only sports recognized are pretty mainstream. As an example, Indiana recognizes only 10 boy's sports and 10 girl's sports (7 of these common to both genders, 3 others unique to each gender, so 13 total sports), not including some fairly widepread ones such as lacrosse, rowing, ice hockey, field hockey... Each of those sport's rules are actually written into the IHSAA bylaws, so I'm sure the process to get to that level would be long and tedious, and might limit flexibility. Also, I know some state AA's really don't like home-schoolers and pretty much ban their participation (and even penalize schools which allow them to enter their competitions). And I also notice that IHSAA had some rules about arranging interstate competitions, which would add even more hassle to a league like TROL that overlaps parts of 3 states. I suspect most other states are similar in the level of complexity.

So, to answer GuyO, I don't see much likelihood of actually pursuing recognition anytime soon, but because the issue came up as a way to increase recognition and acceptance by schools, I wanted to find out if it had been done anywhere.

If any Canadians, Brits, or Aussies are reading this, is there any kind of national (or state/provincial/regional) governing body in your countries that oversees interscholastic competitions in various sports, and is orienteering recognized by such body?

Sounds like waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much hassle.

The fact that there is no HSAA recognition in WIOL-land speaks volumes.

In Sweden we have Skol-SM (Swedish Champs) and in some places Skol-DM (District Champs), but basically that´s all there is to it. No organized activities at all beyond that.

It´s a different "competitive forum" but still the same competitors with the exception that they compete for their schools instead of their clubs.

Actually it´s also quite a bit of a hassle since the school federation doesn´t always allow for the ease of registration that comes natural in our regular meets. To register on the web you have to belong to a club and the "school clubs" only "exist" once a year and are not affiliated to the web system. Usually there are no routines for this kind of thing in the mostly very dormant local schools clubs so the kids (and/or parents) have to fix things on their own if their teachers are not interested.

In Canada education falls under the mandate of the provinces and in Ontario the governing body is OFSAA (Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Associations). Orienteering is not an official OFSAA sport but the orienteering race hosted by the Toronto OC (a few hundred participants) is 'sanctioned by OFSAA'. I'm not sure what that means because the Hamilton schools race (>1000 participants) isn't sanctioned. There are some bigger sports like Triathlon that are not part of OFSAA so I doubt orienteering has a chance. But given that orienteering is part of the Ontario schools curriculum great strides can be made to add more orienteering into school programs. Not sure if that helps at all.

we have an association, and i compete for my school at the British school champs and the world schools champs -ULVERSTON Victoria High school, we've won the large school trophy 15 times in a row but lost it last year, a lot of our runners are very good and run for the north west junior squad and england etc. heres the link to the association http://www.bsoa.org/default.aspx

There is a World Schools Championships? Who knew?
To add to Hammer's comments. OFSAA is divided in to regional districts and those districts in to divisions which are further divided in to associations usually organized along school board lines. for most of the years I was coaching my teams played in the Carleton Board leagues (CHSAA) which was part of the National Capital HSAA which was part of the Eastern Ontario SAA. Many sports held playdowns leading to OFSAA championships. It was a big deal for a student to sport his or her OFSAA championships souvenir T-shirt.
How did orienteering fit in? For 15 years I was the convenor for the CHSAA orienteering championships. The sport was officially recognized by the association with a budget for championship badges and trophies. Unfortunately when I got busier with local government I had to give up the convening. The championships lasted two more years before disolving in disinterest.
What recognition the sport received happened because there was someone on the inside (me) pushing for it to happen. Our O Champs were scheduled in the spring so as not to conflict with XC running (and my football coaching). That gave us a very limited window to organize the event and no time to have division and district playoffs, let alone an OFSAA championships (and oh yes, there was no one else in other jurisdictions willing to do all the work of putting on a meet for their students).
Moral of the story: If there isn't someone willing to do the work a state school orienteering association is not likely to happen. If there is someone willing to do the work, prepare a presentation, lay out a plan and generally make it easy for the decision makers to say yes an association can happen. It does not have to be at the state level at first. But if the objective is to get more kids exposed to orienteering what they are now doing in Hamilton and Toronto beats my efforts of years ago hands down.
Finally, last month I was caddying at the pro-am part of a LPGA golf event. I told my 'player' about my involvement in a sport called orienteering. I expected the usual blank stare. Instead the player, from Hamilton, said his 12 year old son loved the sport. He was doing it through his school. He was very impressed with how the youngster was taking to orienteering.

There is a World Schools Championships? Who knew?

Not only that, the 2010 version was held in Cleveland, Ohio. I couldn't find a 2011 listing on Google.

That may be different from the International School-Sport Championships, which include orienteering. Looks like Sweden has been dominating there... In the Americas, Canada (Quebec) is a member, but the U.S. is not.

No the ISF World Schools Orienteering Championships is different. It was in Italy in 2011, Spain in 2009 and Scotland in 2008. It's held every 2 years, so the next one is in Portugal, 2013.

At the championships orienteering is the only feature, no other sports.

Here are ISF president thoughts and ISF Secretary General thoughts about future development of ISF.

Also SWE high school model was presented.

In Slovenia we have governmental agency for school sports. They decide which sport can be run also as an competitve sport in the schools. Orienteering is in and also part of a curriculum. Each year federation in cooperation with o club, school and agency organize national school orienteering championship. Federation helps to finance the school ISOM map and club helps to organize the event. Only a few teachers are also members of orienteering clubs. In most cases their children are also members of our clubs and run our races but others only run school championship. Normally up to 150 runners in 4 classes and cca. 15 schools from 180 primary schools take part and a few high schools/gymnasiums.

Mike, I thought I heard at some point in the last one or two years that Georgia had adopted Orienteering as an official school sport, but I'm really not very sure of this. I think if there is any state would be them and otherwise not at all.

As far as I know GA has not. Orienteering in GA (and AL) in schools is mostly conducted through JROTC programs. There are a few school clubs in GA. I probably missed my chance in convincing runners to do orienteering during the winter while indoor track was not a sport in Alabama.

No, GA has not. The biggest push here is from Area 12 NJROTC.