The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors met for its regularly scheduled meeting at the IHSA office in Bloomington on Monday, June 16, 2025, where the Board voted to approve the hiring of Jesse Baker as the IHSA’s Coordinator of Special Programs and Tre’Sean Hall as the IHSA’s Director of Social Media.
JESSE BAKER | COORDINATOR OF SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Jesse Baker is a 2015 graduate of Southeast High School in Springfield, where he was a four-year member of the Spartan boys soccer team.
“This will be an exciting opportunity for me to work within a field that allows the intersection of education, sports, and activity participation to be my driving force every day,” said Baker. “I’d like to thank Craig Anderson, the IHSA administrative team, and the Board for accepting me for this position. I would also like to thank my family, friends, former work colleagues, and mentors for providing the support structure that has prepared me to excel in this role.”
Baker joins the IHSA after working for the YMCA since 2022. He began his time at the YMCA as a Sports Director in his hometown of Springfield, before accepting a position as the Membership Director at the YMCA of Middle Tennessee in Nashville. Baker then ascended to a Director of Member Engagement and Experience role at the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis in January.
“Jesse has shown tremendous ambition in his time with the YMCA,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “He ascended the ladder quickly, while showing a willingness to step outside his comfort zone by moving to Nashville and Indianapolis. We are excited for him to return home to Central Illinois, where he will have the opportunity to continue to positively impact young people through their participation in IHSA sports and activities.”
Baker completed a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Illinois at Springfield in 2019 and then went on to earn a master’s degree in sports administration from Valparaiso University in 2021. His time at Valparaiso coincided with an internship with the Great Lakes Valley Conference, an NCAA Division II league housed in Indianapolis.
“As a former student-athlete who participated in IHSA programming, I’m excited to use my past experiences as a player, along with the knowledge I have acquired during my professional career, to meaningfully enhance the experience of every student, coach, and administrator I have the opportunity to support in this role,” said Baker.
Baker is slated to begin his tenure with the IHSA in early July. His exact duties are yet to be determined, but are anticipated to include digital ticketing, coordination of state final band and sportsmanship efforts, the IHSA Foundation Golf Outing, the All-School Mailing, and support at several IHSA State Final tournaments.
TRE’SEAN HALL | DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA
A former three-sport athlete (Football, Baseball, Wrestling) at Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, Tre’Sean Hall brings a wealth of passion and production to the IHSA’s newly created Director of Social Media position.
“I’m very thankful and honored to be selected as the Director of Social Media for the IHSA,” said Hall. “High school sports has always been my passion, and I’m extremely excited to creatively showcase the athletes and coaches that represent the IHSA brand.”
Tre’Sean comes to the IHSA after spending the past two years as a Technical Project Manager at Acrelec America, a global technology company that focuses on customer service experiences for restaurants and retailers.
However, it was his afterhours role that truly defined his fit with the IHSA. Tre’Sean is one of the co-founders of The OFFSZN Brand, a sports medium centered around social media content creation.
“Tre’Sean has an unbridled passion for Illinois high school sports and activities, and we feel fortunate to have him join our staff,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “He is already a pioneer and entrepreneur in this space, and we are excited to see how he uses social media to enhance the IHSA mission and cast a brighter light on the amazing things happening in our high schools every day.”
Tre’Sean and his partner at OFFSZN built and managed a network of content creators that covered sports at all levels, while developing a strong following centered around their coverage of IHSA sports. In addition to managing the OFFSZN’s social media marketing strategy, he also actively covers high school sporting events for OFFSZN, filming and editing footage for distribution on social media. Since launching, The OFFSZN Brand has built a following of 15 thousand plus followers on multiple social media platforms, while producing over 600 videos that have accumulated nearly 2 million views on YouTube alone.
“Our goal with OFFSZN was to provide a platform to highlight high school athletes and programs,” said Hall. “As the Director of Social Media for the IHSA, my goal is to continue doing that for all the sports and activities in the state. Many of my lifelong friendships and memories stem from my time playing sports at TF South. Having the opportunity to tell compelling stories about the students and coaches that currently represent the IHSA is truly a full circle moment for me.”
Tre’Sean graduated from Northern Illinois University in 2022 with a degree in Business Management. He also previously worked as an Operations Analyst with Tegus.
ACTION
1. The IHSA Board approved a recommendation to allocate funding to create an endowment that will cover the annual costs of the Illinois High School Association Foundation (IHSAF) scholarship programs. The IHSAF annually awards 40 scholarships to high school students. Twenty-six scholarships are awarded to members of the IHSA All-State Academic Team, and 14 are awarded to students who are studying to become educators, or that are currently working as IHSA officials.
2. The Board approved a recommendation to adopt Flag Football State Association Adoptions for the 2025 season.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
Minutes from all Advisory Committees can be viewed by clicking here.
1. The Board approved the consent items from the Advisory Committees in the following sports & activities: Basketball, Bowling, Cheerleading, Chess, Dance, Esports, Gymnastics, Music, Officials, Scholastic Bowl, Soccer, Speech, Sportsmanship, Sports Medicine, Student Advisory Committee, Swimming & Diving, and Wrestling.
Consent items are recommendations that received approval from the sport/activity advisory committee, the Athletic Administrators Advisory Committee and the IHSA staff. Consent items can be viewed by clicking here.
Non-consent items are recommendations from sport or activity committees that did not receive a majority vote from the Athletic Advisory Committee or IHSA staff.
Two non-consent items were approved:
Boys & Girls Basketball
1. *The Board approved changes to the Boys & Girls Basketball State Final schedule beginning at the 2026 State Finals. The new state final schedule will be similar to the schedule that was utilized from 2022-2024, which was the first three years that the IHSA conducted the state tournament in a three-day format. To see the 2026 State Final schedule, click here.
IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson:
“The single-weekend state final format is still in its relative infancy, and we’ve been very transparent about our willingness to tweak the time and game schedule until we get it right. We tried a different variation last year and the immediate feedback from nearly everyone involved was that the schedule we utilized from 2022-2024 was far superior. As a result, we are making some slight changes to that original schedule for 2026.”
Boys & Girls Soccer
2. *The Board approved changes to modify State Association Adoption #8. This change modifies the Player and Coach Card Count from a team penalty to an individual penalty based on the number of yellow and red cards accumulated by an individual during a season. Additionally, a straight red card will count as two yellow cards toward the individual count. See all state adoptions by clicking here.
* Item received full support from all bodies, but was listed as non-consent due to being labeled as a major change that required Board review.
APPEALS & ELIGIBILITY RULINGS
1. The Board sustained the Executive Director’s ruling on a student from Aurora Central Catholic High School. The student was ruled ineligible for non-compliance with IHSA By-law 3.040.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain items the Board discusses, but upon which no action is taken. The following is a report of those items from the meeting on June 16, 2025, agenda:
1. The Board discussed feedback that has been received from non-boundaried schools regarding the new multiplier waiver policy that was implemented in March.
2. The Board heard a report on IHSA staff attendance at the annual Illinois Athletic Director Association (IADA) Conference, as well as the upcoming IADA New Athletic Director Workshop, which the IHSA staff will participate in on July 16.
3. The Board heard a report on the upcoming IHSA Officials Conference, which will be held in Normal on July 11-12.
4. The Board heard a report that the 2025-26 school year will mark the 125th anniversary of the IHSA’s founding, and that the Association will celebrate the milestone in a variety of ways during the school year.
6. The Board heard a report on the upcoming NFHS Summer Meeting, which will be hosted by the IHSA in Chicago from June 28-July 1.
7. The Board heard a report on the new by-laws that take effect on July 1, 2025. The by-laws were approved during the IHSA’s annual legislative process in December, 2024. To read the approved by-law changes, click here.
8. The Board conducted its annual review of team entry participation numbers in each IHSA State Series sport and activity.
9. The Board reviewed requests from Antioch High School and Glenbard South High School seeking to nullify the second year of their two-year commitment to play up in classification in the sport of football in 2025. Both schools applied to move up one class in football for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The Board discussed the requests but took no action.
10. The Board heard a report on the 2025 Dr. Marty Hickman Golf Outing on June 17, 2025, which benefits the Illinois High School Association Foundation.
11. The Board recognized three outgoing members attending their final IHSA Board meetings following their retirements from their respective schools. Rockridge High School principal Katy Hasson began her tenure on the Board in 2016 and was the second female Board President in the Association’s history from 2020-2023. Dunlap Official Representative Scott Adreon served two stints in two different roles on the Board, including from 2013-2016 when he was the Principal at Maroa-Forsyth High School. Adreon then moved on to Dunlap, where he accepted a Board appointment to serve in a non-voting role as the Treasurer in 2018. Finally, Plainfield North Athletic Director Ron Lear served on the Board during his final three years as an educator.
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