Sometimes all it takes to resolve an issue is to talk it out. That's what happened on Sunday afternoon when officials with the LHSOA and the LHSAA got together face to face to talk about their differences.

After the four hour meeting was concluded smiling representatives from both organizations met with the media and announced a tentative agreement had been reached and fall sports for high school athletes in Louisiana would not be interrupted.

The LHSOA , the Louisiana High School Officials Association, had asked for an increase in compensation for their member officials. They also had requested attention be paid to security and other issues onsite at high school sporting events.

The LHSAA, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, the governing body of high school sports in the state had said it was agreeable to what the officials were asking. The problem was the group could not commit to those requests until the body met as a whole in January.

Sunday afternoon it appeared as if the differences were ironed out between the  two groups. In speaking to reporters Eddie Bonine, the executive director of the LHSAA said in a report published by NOLA.com,

I appreciate the opportunity to sit down with the LHSOA, their president, Mr. LaRosa. It was good dialogue, some good air-cleaning, I think you'd say, at this point, and I think as this point, we're ready to move forward and try to get a resolve and do what we want to do — and that's to get a situation that's good for kids.

Meanwhile his counterpart, Paul LaRosa director of the officials group told the media,

It was a lot of good conversation with a lot of things that we had to get on the table and talk about and get agreement on, and we have a tentative agreement: We're gonna go back to our officials and let them know that we're very excited to promote the registration of our football officials and our volleyball officials to get ready for the season. And at this point, we can't give you any more details about what was agreed to. We have some mechanical issues to take care of behind the scenes, but our side certainly is pleased that we're able to get to this point and we can tell our officials that we can start thinking about getting ready for the season.

Even though the details of the agreement were not made public at this time there is speculation that both sides did some giving and taking.

The best news of all is that stadiums will be filled with fans, cheerleaders, band members, and your favorite radio station play by play teams on Friday nights. It's time to get ready for some football.

 

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