The Alaska School Activities Association is a statewide nonprofit organization established to direct, develop and support Alaska’s high school interscholastic sports, academic and fine arts activities.
ASAA is responsible for sanctioning 33 activities ranging from fall, winter and spring sports, to music, art, drama, debate, language and student government. ASAA sets competitive seasons, sponsors state competitions, regulates sports officials and provides eligibility criteria for students. Specifically, ASAA does the following:
• Provides awards, in each state competition, and an academic champion
• Sponsors the Alaska Association of Student Governments (AASG)
• Tests and certifies officials in various sports
• Trains and certifies coaches in various sports and trains music adjudicators
• Enforces standard rules and regulations associated with each competition
• Supplies rule books and audio-visual training materials
• Sanctions out-of-state travel for interscholastic competition
• Promotes sportsmanship and a cooperative spirit among member schools, coaches, student athletes and communities
• Works to prevent exploitation of student athletes by special interest groups
• Manages a current website (asaa.org) which provides information and services to all its member schools and administrators as well as coaches and officials associations
ASAA is also a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations. Executive directors of associations from all 50 states meet twice a year to set policy for the federation’s membership. In addition, through a strong committee structure, coaches, officials, and others, help set national direction with regard to inter-scholastic competition. While each state’s association is autonomous, the National Federation provides standardization through rule-making for each sport, as well as guidance for non-athletic event, such as choosing the year’s topic for debate competition.