CHAPEL HILL — The North Carolina High School Athletic Association has announced that 139 member schools in the North Carolina High Sschool Athletic Association were ejection free in their athletic contests during the 2014-15 school year, including three area schools.
Those three schools — all out of Region 4 — included East Bladen High, St. Pauls High and Fairmont High.
The schools were recognized recently at the Association’s regional meetings across the state. The 139 schools represented 34.5 percent of the NCHSAA’s member schools, based on the 403 member schools last year.
The guidelines record ejections for unsportsmanlike acts such as fighting, taunting, profanity, obscene gestures or disrespectfully addressing or contacting officials.
The 2006-07 academic year was the best since the NCHSAA started tracking ejections in 1997, with 202 schools earning ejection free status, which represented 54.8 percent of the member schools in that year. There were 113 ejection free schools in 2010-11, or 29 percent of the membership, and there were 127 ejection free schools during the 2011-12 academic year. The total for 2012-13 was 128 schools and the number last year was 127.
“We are proud that 139 schools were ejection free last year,” said NCHSAA interim commissioner Que Tucker, “but we have to continue to make sportsmanship a priority and hope the number of schools which are ejection free grows.”
All schools with no ejections for the year received a certificate of recognition at the NCHSAA regional meetings across the state. North Carolina Farm Bureau sponsors this as part of its initiative with the NCHSAA.
Three schools were recognized for completing five consecutive years with no ejections, including Chatham Central, Franklin Academy and Southwest Edgecombe. Two schools, Ocracoke and Southside in Chocowinity, have successfully completed their 11h consecutive ejection-free years, and received a 10-year award last year.