Legislature establishes CIAC task force to study leadership structure, procedures

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference is coming under scrutiny from the Connecticut General Assembly after a bill was passed that will convene a task force to study the CIAC’s leadership structure and how the organization receives and resolves complaints.

The establishment of the task force was tucked into Public Act No. 22-116 that came out of the Senate dealing with special education, school mental health specialists and professional development, among other issues.

Rep. Bobby Sanchez (D-New Britain), the House’s chair of the Education Committee, said the section of the bill came out of a discussion with other legislators, as well as Len Fasano, the former Senate Republican president pro tempore. Sanchez said Sen. Doug McCrory (D-Hartford), co-chair of the education committee, also brought up the question of diversity in the CIAC leadership and its committees.

“Fasano and other legislators had questioned why [the CIAC] had so much power over the schools and the schools didn’t have much say,” Sanchez said. “We said, ‘OK, let’s come up with this committee where they can examine and talk about how effective is the CIAC, and include them. They were to report to us in January 2023, the next session, their findings — what processes are they going to change? Answer the question Sen. McCrory had in regards to making it more diverse. And they promised they would do that.

“Now we’ll wait until we see the report in January. If the report comes out and they make some fixes and it’s satisfying, we don’t move on it; we don’t do anything. But if we feel the report wasn’t sufficient enough and more needs to be done, at that point, we can legislate some changes ourselves.”

CIAC Executive Director Glenn Lungarini did not wish to comment on the task force but issued a statement that read in part: “The CIAC welcomes the opportunity provided by this task force to deepen the understanding of state legislators about CIAC’s structure, collaboration, change processes, leadership programs and student recognition designed to provide the best interscholastic experiences possible to its member school students.”

The task force will be made up of a coach, an athletic director, an administrator, a diversity expert from CIAC public schools as well as a sports management expert, two parents of CIAC athletes and Lungarini, who can be on the task force or designate someone. Members of the task force will be appointed by the legislature and can be members of the General Assembly.

Fasano was vocal in his criticism of the organization, which governs high school sports and has come under fire in the past due to a policy that doesn’t allow coaches to work with athletes out of season, transgender policies and canceling the football season in 2020 in response to the pandemic, among other issues.

“We control the teachers, the curriculum, the buses, but we have nothing to say about athletics, and we should take a look at it to determine how it’s going,” Fasano said. “I think people decided it is about time we take a look at some of these things. I wasn’t all that involved in it. I heard about it. I weighed in on it with those I knew were talking about it. I think it’s a great thing to do.

“Athletics are huge. A lot of parents look at them as a way to get their kids scholarships. And when it’s controlled by something that’s totally unregulated to the point of which I would argue brings some serious question on how the rules work, I think the legislature should look at it, check it out and if they’re comfortable, leave it alone and if they’re not comfortable, change it.”

Joe Aresimowicz, the former speaker of the House and current Berlin football coach, said issues with the CIAC have been brewing over time, but he disagreed with forming a task force.

“It was all the one-off gripes that came together — at the right or wrong time, depending on how you look at it — and they thought, ‘This is our opportunity. Can we move forward with it?” said Aresimowicz, now a lobbyist with Gaffney, Bennet and Associates. “They beat the drum of all their one-offs, talked about the structure, and it reached the level of, ‘Fine, we’ll do something.’”

Others like Sanchez thought the CIAC was doing a good job but that improvements could be made.

“I do have that concern about not having enough people of color and making it more diverse,” Sanchez said. “And I also had the concern that other senators and representatives had in regards to their schools having some type of voice.”

Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria (R-105th District), an athletic trainer at Lauralton Hall School in Milford, introduced a bill mandating neck guards for all youth ice hockey players after a player from St. Luke’s in Greenwich died during a game when another player collided with him and cut his neck (it was uncertain whether or not the player who died was wearing a neck guard). The CIAC requires neck guards for players at schools under its jurisdiction, but St. Luke’s is a prep school and does not fall under the CIAC’s rules.

“I said, ‘Listen, my goal as an athletic trainer is always the athletes’ safety. It morphed into, ‘Let’s make it a task force so we can study it.’ Then it morphed into — not from me — other legislators that wanted to do a study on everything CIAC,” Klarides-Ditria said. “Personally, I think CIAC is doing a great job and specifically Glenn Lungarini. Before Glenn, the CIAC wasn’t transparent. I don’t know who specifically wanted to study the CIAC, but that’s where we ended up.”

Rep. Tom O’Dea (R-125th District) said he didn’t have any involvement in the legislation but that he had tried to put together a task force to study the CIAC in 2017.

“When Glenn came in, we met and he understood my position, so I did not push that legislation to have a task force done because I thought Glenn was doing a good job in trying to get it done,” O’Dea said. “My issues with the CIAC pre-existed Glenn. That said, I do think we should always do better. I found out a little more about the task force after the bill came out.

“It’s something that should be looked into, but the question then becomes, what kind of oversight? You don’t want to have it politicized, which I don’t think it is now.”

Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.