The UHSAA's Board of Trustees approved an application from the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind to begin competing in six sports in Class 1-A in the 2006-07 school year.
The USDB is rejoining the association, having been a member through the 1987-88 school year. It will compete in junior varsity contests its first year (in Region 17), before taking on a full varsity slate. The school has campuses in Ogden, Salt Lake County and Orem, and could possibly draw athletes from all three for its teams, which will be based in the Salt Lake Valley.
Deaf and blind students the past 17 years have been eligible to compete for the high school teams in the boundaries in which they reside, but few have been able to make the teams, school officials told the board, which voted unanimously.
The board also accepted an application from the American Leadership Academy, a public charter school in Spanish Fork which will be able to handle 600 students grades 9-12 when it is full. ALA will be a 2-A school in Region 14 and will begin competing in most varsity sports next fall.
ALA's football coach and athletic director will be former Brigham Young running back Kalin Hall, who said the school will install an artificial surface similar to the one at Juan Diego on its football/soccer field.
An application from the Abundant Life Academy, a Christian boarding school in Kanab, was denied.
Also Thursday, the board:
l Was told by UHSAA executive director Evan Excell that it received $98,000 from football endowment games this fall. The fund, started six years ago, now has $768,000 and is well on its way to surpassing the goal of $1 million before its 10th year.
Though not an endowment game, gate receipts for the Bingham-Brighton 5-A football quarterfinal game two weeks ago totaled more than $18,000, Excell said.
Andersen to OSU
Cottonwood quarterback Alex Cate will have some company in Stillwater, Okla.
Cottonwood baseball star Cliff Andersen signed with Oklahoma State's baseball program earlier this week. Andersen is a Puma preseason All-American.
