State school board members unanimously turned down two hotly debated athletic proposals at a meeting in Charleston Wednesday afternoon.

The first would have created a fourth classification for football, which essentially would have opened up the state playoffs to 16 more high school teams.

Last year, state board members also unanimously turned down a proposal to add a Class AAAA for football and boys and girls basketball.

The second proposal would have cut back on the number of meets, matches and games for all middle and high school sports except football and basketball.     

Once again, Principal Warren Grace of Paden City High School in Wetzel County proposed the Class AAAA changes. The change would have been effective in the fall of 2010.

State board member Bob Dunlevy, who represents the nine-member board on the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, suggested his colleagues turn down both proposals.

"I believe this state is too small to go to those four classifications," Dunlevy said of the first proposal.

Of the second proposal - which both State Superintendent Steve Paine and state board member Barbara Fish had blasted two months ago - Dunlevy agreed with board member Lowell Johnson and said county officials should make the decision to cut back on games, meets and matches.

"I think that should be a county decision, not a state decision," he said.

Fish and Paine said cutting back on the non-revenue generating sports would be unfair to student-athletes.

In May, Gary Ray, executive director of the SSAC, said some principals and coaches thought to cut back on the number of events as a way to save money.

State school board members unanimously turned down two hotly debated athletic proposals at a meeting in Charleston Wednesday afternoon.

The first would have created a fourth classification for football, which essentially would have opened up the state playoffs to 16 more high school teams.

Last year, state board members also unanimously turned down a proposal to add a Class AAAA for football and boys and girls basketball.

The second proposal would have cut back on the number of meets, matches and games for all middle and high school sports except football and basketball.     

Once again, Principal Warren Grace of Paden City High School in Wetzel County proposed the Class AAAA changes. The change would have been effective in the fall of 2010.

State board member Bob Dunlevy, who represents the nine-member board on the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, suggested his colleagues turn down both proposals.

"I believe this state is too small to go to those four classifications," Dunlevy said of the first proposal.

Of the second proposal - which both State Superintendent Steve Paine and state board member Barbara Fish had blasted two months ago - Dunlevy agreed with board member Lowell Johnson and said county officials should make the decision to cut back on games, meets and matches.

"I think that should be a county decision, not a state decision," he said.

Fish and Paine said cutting back on the non-revenue generating sports would be unfair to student-athletes.

In May, Gary Ray, executive director of the SSAC, said some principals and coaches thought to cut back on the number of events as a way to save money.

On Wednesday, Ray said his staff surveyed surrounding states to see how many games, meets and matches out-of-state schools play each year.

"Outside of Kentucky, we have more contests than anyone," he said.       

This spring, the SSAC's Board of Control had narrowly approved the Class AAAA proposal, 64-58. The second proposal passed 71-45.

The two proposals generated numerous comments online.

Edward Forshey of Parkersburg High School agreed with the proposed Class AAAA changes, and believes a school with 250 or fewer students should play in Class A while a school with more than 750 students should play Class AAAA in football.

"[It's] finally time for a change to help the smaller schools out," Forshey wrote.

Barbour County Schools official Jack Reger disagreed, and wrote that the proposed change would "substantially increase" travel costs for the AAAA schools.

In Harrison County, Liberty High School baseball coach Pete Iquinto disagreed with the second proposal.

"Due to weather conditions this season, we only played around 18 regular-season games due to 16 rainouts," he wrote. "We were only able to reschedule a few of the cancelled games."

Other baseball, softball, volleyball and tennis coaches and parents made similar arguments. Nearly all who commented opposed cutting back the number of games, meets and matches. 

Reach Davin White at davinwh...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1254.