For the second time in three years, Fallon and the Rafter 3C Arena will hold the NIAA State Wrestling Championships. The two-day event is set for Feb. 19-20.
Fallon was the host in 2025, with Winnemucca taking it on in 2026. Despite more grumblings and complaints from southern Nevada, the state championships will be back in northern Nevada. It will be a $3,500 cost for the NIAA over the two days.
“I think it is great that we have the opportunity to host state wrestling again this year,” said Churchill County Athletic Director Brian Mello in an email to Range Media. “I believe Fallon and Winnemucca are both great sites — not only because of the facilities, but also because we have communities that truly care about and support high school athletics. We are excited about the opportunity and appreciate everyone who helps make State Wrestling such a great event for our student-athletes, coaches, and families.”
The 4A, which is southern Nevada based, and the 5A will hold its state championships Feb. 26-27 in Las Vegas. The girls, who are in it first year as a sanctioned sport, and the small schools will be in Fallon.
In a letter to the NIAA Board of Control, the Southern Nevada Wrestling Coaches Association did a survey of what they felt the to priorities were to fix the state tournament. That group showed the most displeasure of northern Nevada hosting for a third consecutive year.
They would like state tournament location and facility access. Over 56% of respondents ranked this as their No. 1 or No. 2 priority (21 combined votes). The SNWCA believes that the NIAA needs to go back to moving the state tournament every year from North to South. As well as look at appropriate venues.
As indicated by the previous head of CCSD athletics CCSD spends between $100,000-$120,000 for travel, lodging, and per diem each year the tournament is held in the North. It is not equitable for our school district to have to pay this amount multiple years in a row and is not equitable for families that want to support their student athletes to incur the costs of travel, lodging, and food.
The coaches added the parents from the south have had to deal with inflated hotel prices, travel and possibly making accommodations for younger siblings. This should be a rotating expense that is not consistently dumped on the southern schools. Not to mention 4A schools are completely left out of this experience. This is not fair to our athletes, parents or the school district.
Interim Executive Director Sean FitzSimons countered that claim, noting it was one hotel that was price gouging in Winnemucca last year. He stated most who booked their rooms early got good rates.
Their recommendation was to re-implement the traditional North/South geographical rotation for the state tournament and prioritize venues capable of comfortably accommodating participating teams, spectators, and multi-mat configurations. The coaches would like to see adding 4A back to the state competition along with all other divisions.
When venues are offered for free (Churchill county and Lowry) save the money the NIAA would have spent and hold it over to cover the more expensive cost of Southern Nevada Venues. They would like to seek long-term contracts in Southern Nevada every year, (rotating with basketball every other year) to help drive costs down.
What the coaches association failed to realize and it was brough to the attention of the board that there is one postseason budget for all sports. The fact that Fallon (the first time) and Winnemucca did for free doesn’t not change the budget for the NIAA.
1A/2A/3A NIAA State Basketball Championships moved to Feb. 18-20
• The third weekend in February will be a busy one for the small schools, as the 1A/2A/3A state basketball tournament will now be played Feb. 18-20 in Las Vegas, the same weekend as state wrestling.
The move was started by small-school administrators stating the end of the winter season and the start of the spring season would have an ill effect on spring sports.
With state basketball set for Feb. 25-27, that is the same weekend, the first contests of spring sports take place. A number of small schools that have multi-sport athletes would miss that first week of contests and there would be no preseason.
“For us, we multiple two and three sport athletes and with stacking state basketball with our spring sports, it’s going to kill us,” said Lowry High School Principal Shaun Taylor. “What we haven’t discussed yet, is the number of coaches we (small schools) have that coach winter sports and spring sports. Some of those could be unavailable. Some of these schools will be jammed up with players and coaches not available to do both. Another element for us is the weather. We are fortunate to maybe get one preseason tournament in; this would exclude that. We need to do what is right for the kids and put administrative conferences aside for the best of the kids.”
The motion past unanimously to move the tournament up a week. A site in Las Vegas is nearly secured but has not been announced yet.
• In other board meeting news, softball coaches will be able to electronically communicate with their pitcher and catcher. In the past, the coach was only able to communicate with the catcher. This was a rule addition by the National Federation of High School Associations. Rationale: This change reflects the continued evolution of technology within the sport and provides coaches with an additional method to efficiently communicate defensive strategy and game management information.
• A second, first base will be implemented in baseball this year, helping player safety. Effective Jan. 1, 2027, the double first base or a larger first base with the dimensions of 18 inches square will be required. The double first base shall be a white base and a contrasting solid color.
The white portion of the base is located in fair territory, and the contrasting solid colored base shall be located in foul territory. The double first is split by the first base foul line.
The bases shall be installed with no space between the two portions of the double first base. Second and third bases shall be white bags, 15 inches square. The larger first base will be white, 18 inches square and 2 to 5 inches in thickness, and made of canvas filled with a soft material, or molded rubber or synthetic material, and shall be securely attached to the ground or an anchor system. Bases may have tapered edges and/or be designed to disengage from their anchor systems.
• The Nevada high school football state championship games in Southern Nevada — Open, 5A, 3A and 1A — will move from Tuesday, Nov. 24 to Friday, Nov. 20, which is the same week of the Formula 1 in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Raiders notified the NIAA that Allegiant Stadium was not available on Nov. 24.
“We were informed that Allegiant Stadium wasn’t going to be made available to us on the 24th,” NIAA assistant director Bartt Davis said during the meeting. “I asked (Myles) Hayes (of the Las Vegas Raiders) the rationale behind it, he doesn’t even know. He doesn’t run the building; he works for the Raiders. “What this board has told (the NIAA) several times: try to find the best facility that you can find. You can look forever and we are not going to find a better facility than Allegiant Stadium to host our state football championships.”
The state championship games have been held at Allegiant Stadium the past three years on the Tuesday following Formula 1 weekend because of high hotel rates for traveling schools. Allegiant Stadium has hosted the football state title games every year since 2021 at no cost to the NIAA.
The 4A and 2A state title games are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 21, at a to-be-determined Northern Nevada site.
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